


Crossroads

by Pappadogg



Category: Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, X-Men (Movies)
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-21
Updated: 2016-06-16
Packaged: 2018-03-18 20:48:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 19
Words: 99,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3583509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pappadogg/pseuds/Pappadogg
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Starts after Captain America: The Winter Soldier.  Story will divert from canon and go in the direction I that I want to go in.  It will be an on going story that I plan to keep going as long I can think of ideas.<br/>__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________</p>
<p>Sometimes comes an event in peoples lives that influences them to make a decision that will set them on the path that their life is suppose to be on.  </p>
<p>Sometimes  a person is a born hero, they just need some help to reach their potential.</p>
<p>Sometimes the event that happens is based on good intentions, but out of their control.</p>
<p>Sometimes its a series of events that molds a person into the man (or god) that he needs to be.</p>
<p>Sometimes it's another person making a different call that leads a man to have the guts to do the same when he sees his orders as a waste of potential.</p>
<p>What decisions will be made in the future?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

Sometimes comes an event in peoples lives that influences them to make a decision that will set them on the path that their life is suppose to be on. Tony Stark had already had such a event happen to him when he had been kidnapped in Afghanistan and escaped. Instead of going back to turning a blind eye and still creating armaments, he made the decision to step up and be a hero as Ironman. 

Sometimes a person is a born hero, they just need some help to reach their potential as was the case of Captain America, Steve Rogers when he was given the Super Solider Serum. It was his decision to fly a plane in to Arctic waters that set him on a path to be where he was needed to avert disaster in the future.

Sometimes the event that happens is based on good intentions, but out of their control. Example of this is Bruce Banners accident that unleashed the Hulk when trying to recreate the Super Solider Serum. It wasn't till a new friend suggested that the Hulk wasn't a monster, but a force to be reckoned with, that Bruce started to see that he still had choices in his life.

Sometimes its a series of events that molds a person into the man (or god) that he needs to be. Whether it was learning humility to be worthy of his powers, discovering his arrogance had alienated his brother, or finding he didn't like who he had been in the past, Thor was not afraid to face the challenges in his life. His is a path isn't so much one of becoming a hero, but of becoming a better person to reach his potential as superhero.

Sometimes it's another person making a different call that leads a man to have the guts to do the same when he sees his orders as a waste of potential. Who knew when Coulson drug a dangerous, suicidal marksman into SHEILD that it would lead to the recruitment of the most dangerous assassin in the world and the formation of the elite Strike Force: Delta. Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff early lives were both places of darkness that they dragged themselves out of with every bit of physical and mental strength they possessed. They are the example of persons changing their life's path by pure force of will.

What decisions will be made in the future?


	2. Chapter 2

Tony Stark was sitting propped up in his bed working on a Starkpad, irritated that he couldn't be down in his lab. If he had thought it though when he had the arc reactor and shrapnel removed from his chest, he would of realized that he was going to be unable to play around in his lab and hid some projects in his room to work on. But no, he had to take it easy and rest to heal. It probably would of been fine if Pepper hadn't had J.A.R.V.I.S. lock him out of his lab systems under the AI's health protocols.

"Damn it! Why did I have to make the fucking AI self learning!?" Tony yelled out as he threw the Starkpad to the side after J.A.R.V.I.S. booted him out the system yet again.

"Sir, I am only as you made me. My highest protocols are to ensure your well being, even if I must go against your wishes for a time. Would you like me to have Ms. Potts or Dr. Banner visit?"

"No. Don't bother them, J. It's not their faults that I'm a lousy patient. I'm just booooreed siting here. I need something to occupy my mind with." said Tony as he stared at the ceiling.

"If I might be so bold Sir, I might have a suggestion."

"Hit me with it. Its got to be better then nothing."

"Perhaps you could design Ms. Potts engagement ring since she is not currently around and unaware of the idea." Stated the omnipresent AI.

That's A Great idea, J. I knew I kept you around for some reason. By the way, what made you suggest this idea?"

"It was one of several reminders in my system for a future date. I brought it to the top of the list since many employees Ms. Potts is friendly with have inquired whether you have proposed to her. I calculated that it would relieve your boredom and prevent Ms. Potts from physical harm of your person."

"Hahahaahahahaahaahaha! Very well, wouldn't want Pepper to kill me cause I'm dragging my feet. I actually have a design started, but its on my lab computer. So I guess you need to let me into the systems, huh?" Tony said with a smug smirk, thinking he had the upper hand on the AI.

"I have already placed the file on your Starkpad for your convenience, Sir."

"Wily computer," Tony said under his breath as he picked up the tablet, already opened to the ring design file. As he started to study the 3D hologram of Pepper's ring he asked J.A.R.V.I.S. "Hey, was Happy able to get into contact with Thor and Jane Foster? I figure that they might need some help after the whole space elf attack."

"Yes, apparently Mr. Odinson had great pleasure in being told 'He had a mean swing' by Mr. Hogan so that he would know you sent him. Dr. Foster, Dr. Selvig, and Ms. Lewis are currently enroute to New York as we speak. Mr. Odinson is trailing their plane as to arrive with them."

"Why isn't he flying with them in the plane?"

"He broke a seat on the plane when he boarded and was escorted off. Ms. Lewis posted the incident on YouTube. It already has 500,000 hits."

"Damn can't take Point Break anywhere." He said with a grin. "Find the video and save for later viewing, OK?"

"Of course Sir"

Tony then settled in and focused in on designing Pepper's engagement ring. Hours later he was putting the final touches on it when J.A.R.V.I.S. informed him that Pepper was on her way up in the elevator. He put the Starkpad down after having the AI start making the ring down in the lab moments before his girlfriend Pepper Potts, opened the door to their bedroom.

"Hello Tony, how was your day?" The beautiful strawberry blonde CEO asked.

"Tedious. How much longer do I have to stay in this bed?" whined Tony.

"Just a couple more days. The doctor says if the bone graft he inserted where your arc reactor was has fused enough when he visits next, you'll be able to get up and move around. **BUT** , no stress and still no lab till you've recovered. You hear me?" said Pepper as she stared down her genius boyfriend.

"Yes Pepper." he said, knowing not to argue when she had that look in her eye. Last time he tried to sneak down to his lab and got caught, she had him sedated for a week to prove a point. She said next time she'd sedate him till he was completely healed. He really didn't want to be out for that long.

"Good. Now I'm going to take a shower. Why don't you call Bruce and order some dinner? I'm ready to relax for the evening."

"Thai sound good?" he asked as he buzzed down to Bruce's lab to have the man join them for dinner, getting a thumbs up from her as she walked into the bathroom.

" J.A.R.V.I.S., place our usual order of Thai for delivery." he said as he picked up his Starkpad looking at the news feeds for the evening. He was seeing if anyone had sniffed out any details about his surgery, when an urgent news feed came across the screen. As he read it, tony's eyes grew wide. " J.A.R.V.I.S.! CNN, Fox news, MSNBC, all news stations **NOW! PEPPER!** " he screamed as he watched three Helicarriers crash into the Potomac.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

At the same moment, Clint Barton aka Hawkeye, was hunkered down in the shadows of a roof about to put a exploding arrow in the middle of a table of weapon and drug dealers that he had secretly load with just enough C4 to clear the group off the face of the earth. He was only there to eliminate one man, but that was before he discover these sick bastards were trading in children sex slaves to fund their operations. Besides this way it won't ever be linked back to SHEILD.

Hawkeye released the arrow and turned away, already sprinting toward the roof ladder, to slide straight to the ground and fade into the shadows like he was never there.

Five blocks later he looked like any drunken tourist, flowing with crowd. Ten minutes later, he was back in the hotel room, packing up for extract when his phone vibrated. "Damn impatient handlers, only been back thirty seconds and already want an update." he mumbled as he brought up the message.

Only a widening of the eyes was the only indication of his surprise of the one word message.

He quickly stripped himself of everything SHIELD related, grabbed his bow, quiver, and bug out bag. One minute later he was lost in the crowds outside.

When housekeeping entered the next morning, they found a lot of unusual equipment and a phone displaying one word.

"Chitauri"

Clint and Natasha's code word meaning bug out and trust no one, not even SHIELD.


	3. Chapter 3

A nondescript car, one you wouldn't even look at twice, pulls up to a farm house in the middle of no where Iowa stopping in a cloud of dust. A strikingly beautiful woman with fiery red hair steps out and scans the yard for hidden enemies. From above out a tree a voice is heard saying "I heard you told Congress to basically go fuck themselves."

"Hello to you too Clint." replies Natasha as she turns to pull her bag out of the car now that she knows Hawkeye is on overwatch for disturbances. She carries her bag inside and up to the bedroom as she senses Clint come inside and follow her. Once she sets her bag down on their bed, she quickly spins around and practically tackles Clint in a hug, quickly drawing his head down for a soul wrenching kiss. As they draw back from each other minutes later panting for air, Clint asks with a grin "It must of been pretty fucking bad for you to have that kind of reaction. Hell, I would think taking down SHIELD would be a walk in the park for you. You've only been planning the organizations demise since I brought you in." 

"Saw the Winter Soldier." She replied.

"The one the Red Room had train you?"

She nodded into his shoulder, clutching the front of his shirt.

"Well, I hope you put a bullet between his eyes. He's been the one bastard I've never been able to track down for you. Son of bitch deserves to rot in Hell!" he said through gritted teeth.

"Couldn't. Steve was too busy trying to talk him into coming in." she said with her eyes closed, taking a deep breath.

"Why!?"

"Because it turns out the Winter Soldier is Captain American's long lost best friend, James 'Bucky' Buchanan Barnes. Kind of thought Steve would of been a little upset if I shot him." she said with a sigh.

"Fuuuuuuuucccckkkk!!!"

"Pretty much the same thought I had." while pinching the bridge of her nose.

"So any idea of what we're going to do now?" he asked. "I mean we're both kind of unemployed right now. How will we survive?" he said throwing his head back with the back of his wrist across his eyes trying to change the subject noticing how the conversation was affecting her. If he got a smile out her too, he just counted that as a bonus.

"I guess we'll have to live off the millions we earned killing people before we became good guys." she said with a hint of a smile, glad for the subject change.

"PFFFT, we were never good guys, we just decided to try to balance our ledgers. Hell you'd go stir crazy with in two days without stabbing someone any ways. You enjoy stirring up shit way too much." he said poking her in the side. 

Next thing he knew had a grinning redhead with a knife to his throat, who proceeded to dry shave a small patch of stubble off while kissing his ear as she whispered "You know me all to well, мой ястреб. I guess we'll have find a new job. But first I think I'd like to spend some time with my partner that I haven't seen for a month. Preferably without clothes." she purred as she backed him toward the bed.

"Your wish is my command, but this time try not to bruise up my face. It's my moneymaker."

"No promises." she said as she launched herself at him crashing them on to the bed.

====================================================================================

The last person Steve expected to see when he woke up after falling into the Potomac after setting the last Helicarrier to crash was Tony Stark. But there he was, sitting in a wheelchair, staring at a Starkpad as Pepper slept on his shoulder. Out the corner of his eye, he could see Bruce going through his hospital chart with a doctor. 

"Hey Cap, heard you fell in the river. Good thing you popped back up like the Capsicle you are." he heard from a grinning Tony, followed by a smack to the back of Tony's head from Pepper.

"Never would of thought I'd be glad to hear you being an asshole, Tony." Steve croaked out, his throat dry as sandpaper. A straw appeared from his left offering a glass of water. Looking up, he saw Sam standing holding the glass. Nodding his head in thanks, he took the water and drank down half in one go. Sam offer a water pitcher silently, but Steve shook his head no as he pushed himself in to a better position on the bed. 

"How long was I out? And why is Tony in a wheelchair?" he asked, stretching to see if he was healed up enough to get out of the bed. 

"Trying to see if I want to trick it out before challenging you to a race around the hospital." responded Tony.

"He not allowed to walk or move around so much since he had his arc reactor and the shrapnel in his chest removed a month ago. He's still trying to heal a softball size hole in his chest." stated Bruce as he pushed up his glasses after putting down Steve's chart. 

"Ok, that is one hell of a reason. Should you be out of bed? Do you need to switch places with me?" Steve asked with his eyebrows climbing for his hairline.

"Told you he'd try and put me in his bed when he found out. You both owe me ten bucks." Tony said looking at Bruce and Pepper. "No, I'm ok. Just got to be careful not to bump it. So no hugs Spangles." he said turning back to Steve.

"I'll try to contain myself." Steve snorted.

"And to answer your other question, you've been out about 30 hours. You were pretty beat up when I found you. Still don't know how you got yourself to shore." Sam said. 

"I didn't. I think Bucky saved me from drowning. I'm pretty sure I saw him walking away as I coughed up water."

"You were the only one there when I found you. It's possible." Sam said as he scratched the back of his neck.

"Bucky? Your best friend from WWII? How is that possible? Didn't he die before the end of the war, right before you crashed into the ocean?" asked Pepper.

"HYDRA found him apparently and brainwashed him into the Winter Soldier. Only reason I know is because they sent him to kill me." stated Steve.

The three that didn't know about Bucky stared at him with wide eyes processing that info. Tony quickly snapped out his shock and replied "Well it looks like we got plenty to talk about on the jet on the way home. Bruce, hand him his clothes so he can change and we can get out of here. I want to be out of here before the Army shows up."

"Why would the Army show up?" asked Steve worried.

"Because when we got here, you were under guard for quote 'your protection' by four US Marshals. Though I'm pretty sure it was to blame you for what happened to SHIELD since Black Widow pretty much told Congress to stick it up their collective asses. They didn't want to move and they weren't very impressed with me in my wheelchair, when suddenly Bruce states that they can move or he was going to let the Hulk deal with them. I think they might of wet themselves when they hauled ass out of here after he flashed some bright green eyes at them. Took me twenty minutes to stop laughing." Tony answered as Steve quickly changed clothes.

"The Other Guy was worried, what can I say? I've already got your release paperwork taken care of." Bruce said as he handed Steve his coat.

"Your friends are kind of crazy, Steve. Well I guess I'll be seeing you later." Sam said from the far side of the bed as they prepared to leave.

"What makes you thinking we're leaving your ass here?" Tony threw over his shoulder as he turned to wheel himself out, only for Pepper to grab the chair to push him. "If you stay here how are you going to get your wings when I fix them? After all I did invent them."

"You can fix my wings? What the hell are we standing around here for? We got places to be." Sam stated as he herded them out of the room.

They all laughed as they quickly left the hospital, headed to the SI jet on stand by to take them to New York.

They only missed the Army by twenty minutes. 

====================================================================================

"Hey, British voice from the heavens, is there any coffee around this joint? Cause I'm a cranky bitch till I've had at least two cups." 

"Of course, Ms. Lewis. If you would step on to the elevator, I shall take you to the common floor where I have already started the coffee." replied J.A.R.V.I.S.

"I think you and me are going to get along just fine, J-man." Darcy said as she stepped off the elevator following the sweet aroma of coffee to kitchen, quickly find the mugs withe the AI's help. She sat there wondering if she could sneak back to the super comfy bed was given last night with her coffee. She'd gotten more sleep then she thought she would since Jane mention she couldn't wait to get to bed last night and Thor picked up the car on his shoulder to fly it to the tower. Funny thing was it didn't even faze their diver , Happy. He just made sure everyone buckled up for the ride. Of course he worked for Tony Stark, so he'd probably seen stranger. 

About fifteen minutes later she was joined by a sleepy Jane Foster and too fucking peppy to deal with before she'd had her morning coffee Thor. Jane joined her with a mug of coffee as Thor started to devour a box of poptarts, with a second box at ready when the first was gone.

"Wonder where Mr. Stark and Ms. Potts are? I want to thank them for helping us to get back to the US after the incident in Greenwich and after our contracts were canceled due to 'budget cuts'." Jane mused as she pushed her hair behind her ears before picking up her coffee. 

"Mr. Stark, Ms. Potts, Dr. Banner and Mr. Rogers are currently scheduled to arrive in thirty minutes after retrieving Mr. Rogers from a hospital in Washington D.C. on the tower roof." supplied J.A.R.V.I.S.

"What injury befell the Captain that he required healers, friend J.A.R.V.I.S.?" asked Thor moments from summoning Mjolnir to fly to his friends aid. 

"Mr. Rogers is in excellent health currently. I believe it was just a precaution after he fell off a crashing Helicarrier into the Potomac River." stated the AI.

"OFF A HELICARRIER?" said Jane in amazement.

"INTO A RIVER?" worried Thor.

"Wow, I so got to hear this story. I think it might be a good idea to ready when they get here, cause I think we're not anywhere close to ready for this. At least not with out more coffee and hopefully bacon." Darcy said as she headed for more coffee.

(мой ястреб=my Hawk)


	4. Chapter 3

As the small SI jet set down on the landing pad on the redesigned tower roof, Thor, Jane and Darcy stepped out of the elevator to meet their friends. When the door pen on the jet they were surprised at the sight of a wheelchair bound Tony Stark being pushed down the ramp by Pepper Potts being followed by a slightly stiff moving Steve Rogers, a yawning Bruce Banner and an unknown black man.

Thor quickly stepped forward asking "My friends, what injuries have befallen you? Are there enemies to watch for?" He was mere moments from summoning his armor and hammer ready to protect his friends and lady.

"There are no enemies at the moment, so you can relax for the time being. Its actually a long story that I would prefer to tell somewhere a little more comfortable then the roof." replied Steve as he walked toward Thor and the women.

"I second that. I also would like to do that where I can have some coffee at the same time." said Tony as he wheeled by toward the elevator.

"Well there is a fresh pot in the common floor kitchen. Also a huge spread of food that J.A.R.V.I.S. had delivered just before we came up here." supplied Darcy as they all headed into the elevator.

"I knew there was a reason I created you, J." Tony said thinking of the glorious coffee waiting downstairs.

"It is always pleasant to be appreciated, Sir" replied the AI as he took them to the common area floor.

When the elevator stopped the group all headed toward the kitchen area and started seating themselves around the large dining room table. 

"So who wants to go first? We can fill each other in as we eat. Because it looks like we all have a story to tell." said Pepper automatically falling into meeting mode to smooth the flow of info between everyone in the most efficient way possible.

"I'll go first while everyone else eats, if that's OK? Tony volunteered as he nursed a large mug of black coffee. Everyone nodded as they dug into the food while Tony started telling them at about the Mandarin, the destruction of his Malibu house, Pepper's poisoning by Extremis, destroying his suits and the removal of his arc reactor. Next Thor and Jane supplied their story of Jane accidental finding of the Aether, Thor rushing her to Asgard to help her, the dark elves attack leading to Thor's mother, Frigga's death, breaking Loki out of the dungeons with promise of revenge to lure the dark elves to Svartalfheim to destroy their leader, the plan backfiring, Loki's death saving Thor, them returning to earth where through Thor's strength and Jane's science they were able to defeat the dark elves. Finally Steve introduced them to Sam Wilson and filled them on the events that lead to the two of them and Black Widow to take down SHIELD. From when he learned about Project Insight, discovering that HYDRA has been within SHIELD since its start, Fury's death by the Winter Soldier, Steve's recognizing the Winter Soldier as Bucky, to confronting Alexander Pierce and the destruction of the three Helicarriers that lead to Steve's fall into the Potomac.

As everyone sat there absorbing what each of them had been through, Darcy broke the tension by stating "Holy ever living Shit! Your lives are fucking awesome! I hope I get to see a little bit of it before Jane drags us off to another remote corner of the planet."

They all laughed at the outspoken brunettes statement. "Actually I was going to see if Jane wanted to set up shop for Stark Industries here in New York, right here in the tower. I have a feeling that we're going to be needed as the Avengers with SHIELD gone to take care of trouble that pops up. For that we're going to need Point Break over there around and I think he'd be more likely to hang around if you guys are here. What do you say doc? Ready to sell your soul and go private sector with all the funding to do whatever you want? responded Tony.

"I can attest the top of the line equipment and funding." Bruce threw in as he sat drinking a cup of herbal tea.

"It sounds great, but most of my equipment is self made because I work in fringe astrophysics. Its not exactly off the shelf stuff." said Jane.

"I build flying suits of armor for fun. Think of what I could do if I applied that to building you equipment." Tony dryly said with one eyebrow cocked.

"Touché. All right you have yourself a deal. By the way I apologize in advance if we blow up anything. Sometimes we push the equipment too far." replied Jane.

"Are you sure you guys aren't related?" Pepper asked thinking of all the times blew up his lab.

Tony gave her a dirty look as Thor said "Many thanks friend Stark. While I am overjoyed at being with my lady, I was worried that I might be a deterrent to her work with trying to protect this world from enemies. But with her being here, I feel she will be well protected."

"I do what I can."

"well if we're staying in New York I guess that we should try and find an apartment or something to live in. Nothing to expensive in case Thor accidentally crushes a wall or two. If we pool are money we could maybe find a not too small two bedroom." Darcy threw out as she started to look at listings on her phone.

"How about I sweeten the deal and give you guys entire floor of the tower to make your own? Make it completely your to your style. Just pick which you want and tell J.A.R.V.I.S. so he can take care of the details. Sky's the limit." offered Tony, his offer quickly taken by the two women after a short whispered conversation. As they left to go look at floors, he then turned to Steve and Sam saying "Oh, and the offer stands for you too Cap and your friend if he wants. from everything you said about him, he sounds like a good man to have around. Plus he's got great taste in tech."

"Thanks, but I don't know if we'll be around to accept your generous offer Tony. I want to try to find Bucky and try to help him. At the very least offer to be there for him if he wants help or support. Sam has already said he would join me out there so that I have some back up." stated Steve as he looked back at Tony.

"I understand. If it was Pepper out there, I'd leave no stone unturned" said Tony, which caused Pepper to wipe a tear as she blushed and reach out to interlock their fingers. "The offer still stands whenever you want. In fact, how about you guys go ahead and take floors now? we'll just furnish them basically till you guys provide decisions. Then you can use the tower as a base of operations while you search. I'll provide with you Starkphones so J.A.R.V.I.S. can keep you updated with any info that you need to find your friend. Sound like a good plan?"

"Sounds better than anything that I had came up with. Thank you Tony. What do you think Sam?"

"I'm fine with it as long as Stark fixes my wings. I'm better in the air as back up then on the ground. Kind of get in Steve's way." Sam answered with a shrug.

"Yeah about fixing your wings? I'm not doing that." Tony said, holding up his hand to forestall Sam's protest, "I'm actually going to build you better ones off plans that I refined after fulfilling my contract with the Army. I always keep the best shit for myself. More durable, faster, goggles with a simple operational AI to find and track threats. If you want I can look into adding some offensive weaponry later, didn't before because it was suppose to be for scouting enemy movement not fighting."

Sam only nodded, barely keeping himself from drooling to get his hands on those wings. Steve hid a grin at the look on his friends face as he thanked Tony. Him and Sam then went to pick out their floors leaving Tony, Pepper and Bruce sitting at the table.

"You guys cool with them all moving in here?" asked Tony. "It just popped into my head and I went with it." 

"I'm fine with it as long as none of them pick a floor below mine. I want to be below everyone in case of a Hulk transformation, so that I don't hurt anyone." stated Bruce as he got up to head back to his lab, leaving the couple to talk.

"He needs to learn to trust himself and learn to work with the Hulk, not against him." murmured Pepper as she watched their friend enter the elevator. "As to you offering them homes here, If you didn't I would have. Now is not the time for everyone to scatter to the winds, but to come together as team. I wouldn't mind you having some back up yourself. And don't think I don't know about you building more Ironman armor." she said while arching her eyebrow at her boyfriend, "God know I can't stop you, but I can make sure your ironclad ass is safe as I can make it."

"J.A.R.V.I.S. can you bring up the surprise I was working on before going to D.C.? asked Tony as he leaned forward to kiss Pepper with all the feeling in his heart. As the they pulled apart the elevator dinged opened and out walked a suit of Ironman armor with a clasped fist. The armor quickly walked over and knelt beside Pepper reveling a sleek titanium engagement ring with a princess cut pink diamond. Pepper's eyes snapped to Tony's as he started to say "Virginia 'Pepper' Potts, will you marr-" before being knocked back in his wheelchair by an extremely overjoyed Pepper as she kissed him and said yes repeatedly. "Well that went better then I had hoped for." he said as soon as she let him up for breath.

"By the way, nice touch with having your armor bring the ring." said Pepper as Tony slid on the ring after the armor handed it to him.

"Actually I can't take credit for that. I'm pretty sure that was J.A.R.V.I.S.'s little touch. 

"I thought it would add a certain flair to the occasion." answered J.A.R.V.I.S..

"It made it perfect, thank you. Now I'm going to go admire my ring and get some work done that needs to be taken care to expedite getting workers to start on everyone's floor so they can move in." said Pepper as she headed to the elevators. "And you Mr. stark are going to get checked out by a doctor to make sure your OK. If you pass all the tests, I'm going to rock your world tonight." she said with a wink right before the doors closed.

"J.A.R.V.I.S., get the doctor up here as soon as you can."

"All ready on his way, Sir."

As Tony waited he pulled out a Starkpad and started a search program to filter info to help Steve find the Winter Soldier while checking the progress of the parts being fabricated down in his lab for Sam's wings. He also had two brand new military grade Starkphones sent up so he could reprogram them to be secure for Steve and Sam. As soon as he was done with order the doors to the elevator opened, reveling his private doctor walking in. As the doctor walked towards him, Tony wheeled to the side of the table as to give the doctor room for his examination. After a quick check, the doctor pronounced the Tony could get out of the wheelchair as long he took it easy, while remaining him he was still healing but as long as he paced himself, was well on his way back to being fully healed. Tony asked if there was anyway if being able to handle some celebrating in the bedroom tonight after reveling he had proposed to Pepper. With a laugh the doctor cleared him, but said not to come complain to him about being pain the next day. Laughing, Tony walked the doctor to elevator thanking him along the way.

"J.A.R.V.I.S., have some champagne delivered tonight to my floor and when Pepper gets home, lock off access to our floor for the night unless it is an Alpha level crisis. Now lets see how the search program is doing and while we're at it lets start going though the massive info dump Black Widow did. Maybe there are some new secrets that we don't know yet." Tony said as he went to retrieve his Starkpad, then headed to a comfy chair to rest while scanning info. "You know what, collect all info about Phil Coulson. I'd like to found out where he is buried, so I can visit him like we should of before. All we had was a memorial service after the Battle of New York. Maybe we could do it as a group. Hmmmm, speaking of a group, we seem to be missing two assassins. I wonder how I can track them down while not getting killed in the process?" he said as he just let his thought flow aloud, knowing that J.A.R.V.I.S. would make notes of the thinks to be taken care of.

"Sir, as to your contacting Ms. Romanoff and Mr. Barton, I have a dead drop e-mail address for Ms. Romanoff that she hardwired into my system for emergency situations, from when she was employed here. Shall I try to get in touch with her?" supplied J.A.R.V.I.S..

"Of course she did. Sneaky spy. Yes, do what needs to be done to contact Blackhawk. Its a good guess that they won't turn down helping to hurt HYDRA with us. Plus they can help to sort through the SHIELD files."

Tony then hunkered down to pour though the seemly endless amount of formerly classified files. He worked though the rest of the morning, stopping to eat lunch with everyone when they returned to tell him the floors they had picked and then inviting them to watch movies in the media room so he could rest. Steve was going to turn if down until Tony pointed out that he couldn't start looking for Bucky without more info and till Sam's wings were finished.

Later when Pepper came home, Tony and her reveled that he popped the question earlier in the day. Amid the congratulations, Pepper said she was surprised that Tony hadn't let it slip, to which he said that he didn't want to spoil her moment given that she had promised him a 'special' treat if he behaved, as he wiggled his eyebrows. Pepper chased Tony out of the room towards the elevator as someone clued in Steve and Thor to the joke, as Sam and Darcy fell off the couch laughing. Soon after everyone had headed off to their rooms to get some sleep. 

Tony and Pepper arrived on their floor barely breaking the kiss they were sharing to leave the elevator. As they passed the bar on the way to the bedroom, Tony grab the bottle of champagne and two glasses. When he got to the doorway, he was treat to the sight of only panty clad Pepper Potts who flung her bra at him in invitation from the middle of his bed. He set the bottle and glasses on the bedside table as he climb across the mattress to meet her for a soul searing kisses that promised both of their worlds were about to be rocked.

====================================================================================

Tony woke up with a very satisfied Pepper tuck into the side of him and some aches and pains that he was more then willing to bare after last night. If he knew proposing would of equaled what happened last night, he would of done it a while ago, he laid there thinking. It was only after getting flicked in the head that he realized he'd said it out loud. 

"Just think about what you have been missing out of all this time. If you had locked me down sooner, I could of been rocking your world a whole lot sooner." Pepper tossed over shoulder as she got up headed to the shower. "And since you opened your mouth and I know that you're hurting, I'm not going to invite you to join me."

"Damn, way the stick your foot in your mouth genius" mumbled Tony as he slid out of bed to go find coffee after being called out by his fiance. By the time Pepper left the bedroom, Tony was on his second mug of coffee. As she wrapped her arms around him from behind she whispered into his ear "I talked to the doctor yesterday and decided that since your making good progress, that I'm going to remove J.A.R.V.I.S.'s blocking of your access to your lab. Now before you go flying down there, I want you to take it easy OK? J.A.R.V.I.S. will be monitoring your health till you get the all clear from the doctor and if he feels your pushing yourself to far, Bruce is going to drag you out for health, Understood?"

Tony nodded eagerly as he kissed her and said "Yes I got. Only thing I plan on working on right now is Sam's wings and getting him and Steve's new phones reprogrammed to be more secure. After that I promise to come back and rest while going through some more SHIELD info. OK?"

"Square deal."

====================================================================================

Steve and Sam, after an early morning run around the tower (meaning Sam jogged while Steve lapped him), arrived on the floor J.A.R.V.I.S. said Tony's lab was on, looking for said genius. As they walked past the wall blocking sight of the lab from the elevator, the first person they saw was Bruce as he quietly sat at a table, reading through the results of some experiments he had been running while Tony hadn't been around. He was trying to finish up before Tony showed up so he could make sure his science bro didn't overexert himself since Pepper was letting him back after his recovery. 

"Good morning, Dr. Banner. Have you seen Tony yet? I was wondering if he had any information about Bucky yet. I'm eager to get out there on his trail." said Steve as he shook Bruce's hand.

"Good morning to you too, Steve. I've told you before to call me Bruce. As to Tony, I think Pepper lifted his lab restriction this morning, so expect he's headed this way soon." replied the scientist as the elevator door dinged open to let off Tony.

"Hey guys. I was just getting ready to call you down here. Steve my tracking program produced a sighting of the Winter Soldier at the Captain America exhibit in D.C. and before you go running off he's long gone. I think you got partially though to him. He spent a long time looking at the info on you and himself. I've refined the program to search through out the released info after I discovered that Black Widow also released a lot of HYDRA files too. Its plotting out the most likely places to find him in. Give me till tomorrow and I should at least have the start of a list so you can make a plan to go forward with, OK? Plus I should have your secure Starkphones ready." Tony said as he walked into the lab.

"I think that sounds good. Now I got to figure out our transpiration for the search." replied Steve.

"Well you can take one of mine or you could buy one." suggested Tony.

"How would I buy one? I'm sure that I don't have enough money to do that." pointed out Steve while looking at Sam. "What about you, Sam?"

"Not even close." quipped Sam.

"Actually Cap you kind of do." said Tony while bring up a file on his Starkpad. "If you look here you have a little over 8.5 million." he said as he handed the tablet to the stunned man.

"How is this possible?" asked Steve looking at Tony to explain.

"Well you were drawing captain pay when you went in to the ice. You were considered MIA, not KIA, so you were never taken off the payroll. Your contract back then also stated that you got paid in war bonds, so your the only one that can cash them in without a death certificate. So you were paid up till mandatory retirement age, where the bonds sat and collected interest for years. Also technically you retired with the rank of a four star general." explained Tony. 

"Uh, wow, OK. I need to sit down. I need to wrap my head around this info." a dazed Steve said to no one in particular as he headed toward a chair one of Tony's robots was pushing over.

"Well, now that I'm done breaking the captain's brain, we can focus on getting your wings taken care of so that Bruce doesn't have to drag me out of here since I promised Pepper I wouldn't over do it." Tony said as he turned to Sam. 

"Cool. Though you wanted to surprise me with some hidden millions I wouldn't complain." he answered.

Tony laughed as he lead Bruce and Sam toward a table full of parts for Sam's wings. As he stopped at the table, he picked up a set of advanced looking goggles with a protective mask attached, turning to hand them to Sam. "Here, we'll set up the program to calibrate the control to you. While you do that, me and Bruce will finish up the wing pack." stated Tony sitting Sam down in front of a terminal and starting the program. Next he started wiring together the different systems on the wing pack. He was using a repulsor system for a smoother thrust, faster speed and better maneuverability. Plus he could power it with a battery pack that they could charge if they had to, though the way they were designed they shouldn't need to even with heavy use for at least four months.

Sam wandered back over just about the time Tony was putting the finishing touches on the wings. After explaining the new wing system and handing it over for Sam to test outside that afternoon, Tony and Bruce checked on Steve. He said looked over the info on his wealth and had decided after using some of it to help with finding Bucky, he was going to donate all except five hundred thousand to help wounded veterans. Tony and Bruce both nodded and thought it was a very Steve thing to do.

After collecting the phones to be reprogrammed, they all headed for the elevator, Bruce and Tony going up to the community floor, while Steve and Sam were headed out to test out Sam's wings. The two pairs said goodbye and headed to different elevators. 

As the science bros stepped off the elevator J.A.R.V.I.S. Informed them that he had made contact with Hawkeye and Black Widow. "They said that they were more than glad to join in on getting revenge on HYDRA. They said that would meet the team at the tower when they could, as they were being actively searched for by lots of different groups because of their pasts since they were no longer protected by SHIELD employment. Ms. Romanoff also informed me that they wouldn't contact anyone again until they arrived at the tower" relayed J.A.R.V.I.S..

"Thanks J, keep an eye out, OK? Cause Clint would probably announce his arrival by dropping out of the duct work like the sneaky bastard he is" Tony said.

“You know I’d argue with you, but you’re probably right” Bruce said with a laugh. “You want some help looking through the files? I promised Pepper that I’d keep an eye on you.”

“Thanks Dad. But yeah I wouldn’t mind the company. Just got to reprogram these phones for Steve and Sam and then I’ll join you.” Tony answered as he sat down at the kitchen table, connecting the phones one at a time to his Starkpad quickly reprogramming them to have a secure connection to J.A.R.V.I.S.. Setting them aside he picked up his Starkpad, joining Bruce in working the mountain of information.

====================================================================================

As the science bros were sorting information in the tower, Steve and Sam were standing in a clear area of Central Park as Sam strapped himself into his new wings. Steve was trying to not to laugh at his friend who was just short of an overexcited kid at Christmas trying to play with a new toy. 

“Man if Stark delivers on half of what he promised with these wings, I might ever take them off” enthused Sam as he locked in the last strap. “And you can wipe that grin off your face, you're not hiding it at all. If Stark made you a better shield you’d probably act the same way.”

“First, I wasn’t trying to hide my grin and second, Tony has already examined my shield since his father kept it for all the time I was in the ice. Even he admits that he can’t improve on his father’s design” the blond super soldier answered.

Sam laughed as he prepared to take flight. He extended the wings and fired the repulsors, shooting into the sky faster he’d ever had before. The only thing Steve heard was a faint ‘Hell Yes’ as his friend disappeared into the sky. He watched the sky for a few minutes before walking over to a nearby bench to sit and wait for his friend to come back down. He wished he had a sketch book with him because the park was quite beautiful in the sun light and he saw several scenes he wanted to draw.

After about ten minutes later a smiling Falcon dropped out the sky to land at Steve's feet as he stood up to meet his friend. Sam gushed over how awesome his new wings and how he was ready to have Steve's back on their search for Bucky. As Steve nodded, he challenged Sam to a race back to the tower so they could start preparing to leave tomorrow and check in with Tony on any new information.

====================================================================================

Tony couldn’t stop yawning and bitching at the fact that Steve had woke him up before sunrise the next morning as him and Sam set off on their search. Armed with a Starkpad filled with possible locations to find the Winter Soldier, an armored Hummer that Tony just happened to have on hand (uh huh), their new Stark phones, and an unlimited debit card that J.A.R.V.I.S. would wipe all traces of to cover their tracks, the two soldiers set off. Their first stop was going to be in the mountains of Virginia. 

Tony was next woke up a couple hours later as he slept on the couch on the community floor to the sounds of all the residents of the tower, new and old, eating breakfast. But what really got him up off the couch was the mug of coffee Pepper held just out of his reach luring him to come join them. As he sat there, he pulled Pepper on to his lap as Thor, Jane and Darcy talked about the plans for their floors. Listening to them made him think about needing to build a training floor, setting up a new lab for Jane, probably redoing the community floor in to two splitting it into a kitchen/dining area, bar and lounge area on one floor and a meeting and media area on the other. Pepper looked over his list and suggested a locker room set up on the training floor and upgrading the security system since grouping the team together would most likely lead to increased danger for them all. Tony thanked her for the locker room idea and told her he was already in the process of upgrading security. 

The next few weeks were a blur of activity as everyone’s living areas were completed, as well as the training floor and community floors. Bruce and Tony returned to working in the labs after having J.A.R.V.I.S. finish sorting though all the SHIELD files, telling him to bring anything he thought they would need to know. Which is what happened early one morning as the two of them were in the elevator headed to the lab to start working one morning when J.A.R.V.I.S. told them he had collected all pertinent data on Agent Coulson.

“Well done J.A.R.V.I.S., I had forgot I had you doing that search” responded Tony.

“Why were you doing a search on Agent Coulson?” asked Bruce turning towards Tony.

“Sir, Mr. Barton and Ms. Romanoff just entered the underground garage. Shall I send them up to the community floor or to your lab?” interjected J.A.R.V.I.S. before Tony could answer. 

“Send them to the community floor we’ll meet them there” he answered as the elevator reversed direction moments later. “As to why I was doing a search on Coulson, I wanted to find where he was buried so that maybe we could visit. Personally I kind of wanted to say good bye properly, you know something better then the shitty memorial service that SHIELD gave him.”

“I like that Idea. I didn’t know him well, but he seemed like a good man. Be sure to include me when you do visit so I can pay my respects, OK?” Bruce asked.

“Yeah I was kind of thinking it could be a team thing. Sound like good idea?” Tony said as they walked off the elevator not seeing the two master assassins sitting on the couch, so he jumped about a foot in the air when Clint asked “Does what sound like a good idea?” while Natasha laughed at the look on Tony’s face.

As Tony made sure his heart hadn’t leaped out of his throat, Bruce explained Tony’s plan to have the team visit Coulson's grave to pay their respects. Clint and Natasha both quickly agreed to go since they both knew him the longest. 

“All right now that I swallowed my heart back down, J.A.R.V.I.S. go ahead and download all the info on Coulson on my Starkpad.” As the download started, he started heading toward the kitchen to grab some coffee, while Bruce greeted Clint and Natasha asking how their travels had been as they hadn’t heard from them for a couple weeks. The two assassins were explaining their roundabout journey and shaking off any tails and people hunting them when the all jumped when they heard a crash from the kitchen. Bruce rushed off thinking Tony had hurt himself since he was still healing, as the other two quickly followed. They found Tony standing in the middle of the kitchen staring at his Starkpad intensely, a broken coffee mug at his feet with what looked a full amount of coffee spreading across the floor. 

As they all asked him what was wrong at the same time, he looked up and said the last thing they thought they would hear.

“Coulson is alive.”


	5. Chapter 5

“What-” was Bruce’s response.

“Impossible” whispered Natasha.

“FUCKING FURY!!” Clint yelled as he punched the wall leaving a hole. “I’d poke out his other eye if he wasn’t dead already”

To say that the three of them had mixed reactions to Tony’s revealing the Coulson was alive would be an understatement. 

“Are you certain?” asked Natasha.

“Well unless it was a ghost, I have a recent video here of him storming a Shield base, battling other agents that are identified as HYDRA. He then proceeds to fight a man identified as John Garret and what looks like a cyborg. Coulson gets launched across the room by Garret who appears to be a lot stronger than he looks. Just when it looks like Garret has ordered cyborg to kill Coulson, it turns and beats the ever living shit out of Garret.” said Tony as he scans though a video. “Later Garret escapes and rebuilds himself into a cyborg and Coulson blasts him with some kind of ray and kills him. Which was kind of awesome I got to admit. Way to go Agent.”

As the other three looked over Tony’s shoulder at the video, Clint and Natasha shared a look acknowledging that it was Coulson. They’d know his movement style and fighting style anywhere. There was no doubt in their minds it was him after viewing the footage. 

The two assassins turned to the Tony and Bruce as Clint said “There is no doubt in my mind that was Phil Coulson in that footage. OK, we know he’s alive. What I want to know is how he survived and why it was hidden from us?” Natasha just nodded that she agreed.

“Both are damn good questions. So how about I try to find out why we were kept in the dark and Bruce looks through the files on how Coulson survived. And before you two ask what you can do, you’re giving off a very dangerous ‘I’m going to kill a motherfucker’ vibe, so how about you go work off some energy sparring, beating up gangs, rough sex or whatever it is you guys do, but go away and let us work, OK? Because I feel like I’m a bad joke away from dieing.” Tony said as he backed up a couple of paces from the pissed off assassins.

Clint and Natasha glanced at each other and spun on their heels headed for the training floor to take Tony’s advice. As Tony turned to Bruce to ask his opinion of the situation, when he noticed that the doctor’s eyes were tinted with green. 

″Oh shit, Bruce you OK? Do you need to get to the Hulk out room?″ asked Tony.

Gritting his teeth, Bruce swallowed and took a deep breath before answering ″I’m OK. Not angry, just overwhelmed by the surprise. Got my heart rate up a little, but I’m good now.″

″Well quit scaring me like that. My heart can’t take much more excitement. I just got it fixed not too long ago, remember?″ Tony fired back cocking his eyebrow humorously.

As Bruce laughed, the two of them went to go back to the labs where they could use the hologram tables to look though information faster. Shortly after they started going through the info, Tony found a letter addressed to him of people about why the Avengers were kept in the dark. 

Stark

If you are reading this, you hacked my damn system again and found out that Coulson is alive. I’ll admit to using Coulson’s death to motivate you before the Battle of New York. I felt you needed the push. As to Coulson surviving, I wasn’t sure the procedure would were work or whether he would be the same man afterwards. So I made the call to not tell you or the other Avengers. Maybe I would’ve told you all later, but probably not.

Also don’t blame Coulson, I order him not to contact you guys. He’s such an agent that he wouldn’t go against orders even if he tore him apart not to do so.

Nick Fury

P.S. Stop fucking hacking my motherfucking systems.

After reading that, it didn’t take Tony long to figure out Coulson surviving was a very closely held secret that was only shared with trusted agents. One name caught his eye in particular, Maria Hill, Fury’s second in command. Who just happened to be in D.C. before Congress testifying about the downfall of SHIELD. Today was to be her last day according to the news feeds, so she would be free to answer some of their questions.

″You know I bet she would be able to answer some questions for us. Just got to figure out how to get her here.″ he was musing out loud when from beside him was said ″me and Clint could go get her. She would know there was no use to resisting or run if we showed up. Especially if we mention we know Coulson is alive.″

″Jesus Christ! I swear to god I’m going to make you wear a fucking bell if you keep doing that kind of shit to me!″ screamed Tony as he jumped back from Natasha. 

From above he heard ″Hell we’ve been in here for like ten minutes. It’s not our fault you don’t have any spacial awareness. By the way can we borrow your jet? We could be back this afternoon with Hill if we can.″ Clint asked the last as he dropped down from the exposed rafters in the lab. (Tony had a habit of catching ceiling tiles on fire if installed)

″Yeah, yeah. Sure whatever, go do that. I’d very much like to talk to Ms. Hill. You’d probably just steal it if I said no any way.″ Tony answered as he sat down in a chair.

With a smirk and a shrug, the two assassins headed to the elevator to go to the airport to get Tony’s jet.

After they left, Bruce called Tony over to go over the data on Coulson′s resurrection. They were both horrified at the lengths Fury went through to bring back Coulson. That kind of trauma would have driven a lesser man insane. After reading the information they decided against watching any of the videos of the procedure to spare Tony’s heart and Bruce from ripping out a large chunk of the tower when he hulked out. They locked the data away so that it took both of them to access it. They didn’t want it finding the light of day ever again. Tony even had J.A.R.V.I.S. scrub it from the internet and anywhere else he could find it.

″I think we both need a largely alcoholic drink right now. Then we should get everyone together and break the news to them so we can show a united front when Hill gets here. Sound like a plan?″ Tony said as he and Bruce walked into the elevator.

″Make it two to get over what they did to Phil and I’m on board.″ answered the slightly green eyed doctor.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

After knocking back an initial drink each, Tony had J.A.R.V.I.S. call all the other residents of the tower to the living room area of the community floor. The first to arrive is Pepper, who knows that something is up with them drinking, well not so much Tony as Bruce, so she knows it going to be something big. She immediately goes to Tony wrapping him in a hug after witch she stays standing by him with an arm wrapped around his waist in support of whatever comes next. As they wait, she notices Bruce kind of looking lost in his drink, wishing he had someone to be there for him. He really needed the support of a significant other to help him she thought before she was pulled from her thoughts by the arrival of Thor, Jane, and Darcy. Before anyone could really start to ask what was going on, Tony started handing out drinks saying only that they would need them before they were through.

″J.A.R.V.I.S. do you have the captain online yet? I only want to say this one time. Also, how close are Hawkeye and Black Widow from being back from DC?″ started Tony as everyone sat watching him.

″Mr. Wilson is connecting the Starkpad you provided him and Mr. Rogers to a television in the room they are currently staying in. Mr. Barton and Ms. Romanoff are about five minutes out from the tower with current traffic patterns.″ answered the AI.

″Thanks, J. OK, I know that you’re all wondering why me and Bruce called you up here. As soon as Steve and Sam are online and Clint and Natasha get here, we’ll get into it.″ Tony said as he looked around the room.

As everyone else nodded, looks of confusion and worry passing around the room, the TV screen on the wall sprang to life with Steve and Sam looking back at everyone in the tower.

″Tony what’s the emergency? All J.A.R.V.I.S. would say was that we had to find a safe location to call in for an all hands on deck situation. I have a very solid lead on the Winter Soldier and feel I’m only steps behind him.″ ranted Steve as soon as he spotted Tony. Sam only nodded in the background.

″Steve, I will explain as-, never mind they’re here.″ Tony answered as Clint and Natasha walked off the elevator with Maria Hill between them. ″Now that we’re all here, the first thing is that Bruce, Clint, Natasha, and I have known since this morning. The only reason we waited to tell the rest of you, was to have information to answer the question you will in all likelihood ask. Well, nothing but to say it: Coulson is alive, Fury hid from us, and Maria is here to answer any questions that we might have. Alright, questions?″ Tony spoke quickly to get it out as not to be interrupted.

Darcy and Jane exchanged slightly shocked expressions, they hadn’t had a lot of contact with the agent and only knew of his death though Thor and how he honored him as a true warrior. Thor was stunned wondering what kind of sorcery had befallen his comrade, wondering if perhaps his death had been a trick of Loki’s. Sam was just confused, as he had never met Coulson, but he had a feeling that he was someone important to them if only based on Steve reaction to the bombshell.

“Coulson is alive? How? And Fury hid it? Next time I see him I’m punching him in his ‘one good eye’! Where has he been? Is he safe? When are we retrieving him?” Steve shot out as he started planning a mission to find their friend.

“I understand wanting to punch Fury in the face. I would love to if he wasn’t dead. Especially after seeing the info on how Fury saved Coulson. Fury had a procedure done on him that was highly illegal, unethical, and dangerous. Bruce and I went over the files and we locked them away and I had J.A.R.V.I.S. scrub the info out of every corner of the internet he could find. As of right now he is safe. Other questions I think we should ask Maria. It seems that almost all the files on Coulson are missing or were never there. The floor is yours, Hill.” Tony waved the lady in question in the middle of the room.

“I would try to deny it, but I was informed on the trip here I didn’t have choice by a pair of pissed off assassins. And also I believe you all deserve answers, since I didn’t agree with fury’s manipulation of you before the Battle of New York and keeping in the dark about Coulson’s survival. As Stark said Coulson went through a very dangerous procedure. One we weren’t sure he would survive or come out of the same man he was before. So in order to assess if there were any ramifications afterwards, Coulson was given a team to lead to deal with trouble spots. But in reality the team was put together to be able to take him down if he went off the rails.” Maria started off saying as she paced with nervous energy, hoping she wasn’t pissing off some of the most powerful beings on the planet.

“After seeing what was done to him, Coulson is lucky not to be strapped to a bed drooling for the rest of his life! The things done to him, I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy!” roared Bruce as he threw his drink across the room. “If the place were it was done hadn’t been destroyed, I would have Tony air drop me there to do it myself. And for once me and the Hulk are in complete agreement.” he said as he stood there quaking in rage, yet not turning green. 

“Perhaps it would be a better idea if friend Banner were to leave the discussion for the time being? As much I like a good tumble with the Hulk, I don’t want to meet him in such am agitated state and not in the same room as Jane and Darcy. Nor do I think friend Stark wants lady Pepper hurt.” stated Thor, half a second from summoning Mjolnir.

Bruce only nodded as he retreated to the kitchen to make himself some clamming herbal tea. As he watched his friends retreating back, Tony latched on to Coulson having a team, “So if his team was there to take him out, how do they trust him?”

“Only one person on his team knew that part of the teams formation, Agent Melinda May. She is an old friend of Coulson, so she would be able to assess his mental health. She reported directly to Fury and at last report there were no problems, except with HYDRA.” Hill answered. “The rest of his team were unaware of what happened to him and just recently found out. They have been very supportive. As for Steve asking to go get him, I would suggest reaching out his team and letting him know you are aware of him being alive and your here if he needs or wants to contact you. They are being hunted by HYDRA and you might accidentally lead them to Coulson and his team. But that is my assessment, take or leave it.” Hill addressed to the room, falling into a debriefing mode.

Steve and Tony stared at each other and after a subtle nod from the soldier, Tony turned and said “OK, we’ll go by your suggestion and reach out to him. But if he gets into trouble, we will bring the full weight of the Avengers down on to keep him safe. Agreed? Thor? Clint? Natasha? Anything to add?”

“I will follow your lead on this my friend. Just as long as friend Coulson is kept safe.” answered Thor.

As Clint and Natasha shared a look, she answered “Sounds like as good as plan we’ll get till we have more info. Plus Agent May will keep him safe, she was only slightly better than me the last time we sparred. Of course Fury forbid us from doing it again since we almost killed each other since neither one of us likes to lose. It was a tie due to blood loss.”

“It was a wicked fight. They each knocked out a dozen guards when they tried to break it up. I told them it was better to just stay out of the way and let them go.” Clint interjected.

“OK now that we’ve established that he’s in good hands, I’ll start working on getting in touch with Coulson. Captain, you coming back or you and Sam going to keep tracking the Winter Soldier?” asked Tony as he turn to the two men on the screen.

“Well since you all seem to have it under control, I think me and Sam will keep moving on the Winter Soldier. Like I said before we have a real good lead on him. We’ll keep in touch and check in on the progress on Coulson. If we came back now we’d just be hanging around waiting on a response, besides if something comes up J.A.R.V.I.S. can contact us.” replied Steve.

“Alright we’ll keep your Starkpad updated with info on our progress. By the way what did you mean about the next time you saw Fury you would punch him? Isn’t he dead?” 

“Actually he faked his death to bring down the Insight helicarriers. The last I heard he was headed to eastern Europe to take out HYDRA cells.” answered Steve right before Sam cut the feed.

When Tony looked to Maria, both she and Natasha nodded in confirmation. “You know that doesn’t actually surprise me. I kind of thought he would be too slippery to get killed in an assassination attempt. But then the next time we see him we agree one of us punches him right in the mouth, right?” as he got nods from everyone. “OK, now that is settled, Maria what do you plan on doing now that SHIELD is defunct? Because we’ve been discussing how the Avengers are probably be needed again, but we don’t know where to start with dealing with HYDRA. We can respond well enough but we need to be ahead of the curve on this. How would you like to head up the new world security organization I just thought of. All the resources you want and no annoying World Council mucking up the works. What do you say?”

“Well with that kind of sells pitch and no job prospects due to being a pariah due to help crash three billion worth of helicarriers, why the hell not?” answered Maria thinking Tony was joking. When she realized he wasn’t, she gave it another thought and agreed as she really wanted to destroy HYDRA., and who better to have to back her up in the pursuit of that goal then the Avengers.

“On the plus side, now you have something to offer Phil in the way of a job when you contact him. I don’t think he would have responded well to you just wanting him to come here without something to do.” Pepper said to Tony as she stood next to him as the others started to head to their floors to process everything that happened tonight. She quickly had J.A.R.V.I.S. find Hill a temporary room till she could be assigned an apartment in the tower. As they rode the elevator to their floor she surprised Tony by not wanting to talk about Coulson (she agreed with the plan to deal with getting in contact with him) or Tony suddenly starting a global security program (she felt they needed all the help they could get), no she wanted to talk about Bruce’s lack of companionship.

“Come on Tony, if he had someone to care for, I think he would be able to get more in touch with the Hulk if only to have better control as not to accidentally hurt them. Besides I believe that after everything he’s been though he deserves some happiness. Besides everyone is coupling up. You and me, Thor and Jane, I heard Steve has someone that might be interested in him. Even Clint and Natasha have each other I think. You never know with those two.” she pointed out the whole ride to their floor and into the bedroom as they started to get ready for bed. 

“I have actually given it a thought, especially after proposing. When I asked Bruce to be one of my groomsmen, I asked if I should plan for a plus one in the wedding party. He said would be going solo and not to try to set him up. Later after he thought I left I caught him staring at a picture J.A.R.V.I.S. later identified as Betty Ross. I’m pretty sure he and the Hulk are still in love with her. Kind of a soul mate type of thing if you believe in that.” stated Tony only to get smacked in the back of the head after the last statement. “Love you too.” he said as he rubbed the back of his head. “She has actually contacted the tower after the Battle of New York, to make sure Bruce was OK. I’ve been keeping her updated on the sly for awhile now. I get the feeling if she thought there was a chance of him wanting her, she’d be on our doorstep so fast our heads would spin.” he said to Pepper’s surprise, not knowing about any of this. But Tony just wanted his best friend to be happy like he was even if it took him long enough to admit.

As she smiled to her fiance, Pepper asked “So should we offer her a job?”

“I already have a job offer drawn up. Would you like to do the honors?” As she nodded, Tony had a sudden thought. “Bruce is going to be pissed at us you know, and he almost lost it tonight downstairs. I think I’m going to build him a hulk out room, some place he can go if he feels like he’s losing control. I’ll even plan out an emergency route for quick use and an express override to the room for him.” he said to himself as he stared to plan out the idea. Pepper laid down knowing she had lost him to his ideas and lab for the night, only making sure that J.A.R.V.I.S. would lock him out if he got out control by not sleeping for three days straight. 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------.

At the same time, a winged figure was circling an abandoned looking building in a deserted section of waterfront in the city of Detroit. As he completed a third sweep of the area he landed on a rooftop on the next block next to a familiar blonde super soldier.

“As far as I can tell there isn’t anyone around at the moment. But it does look like there was some recent activity, fresh bullet holes, traces of not quite dried blood, and fresh tire marks. But I can’t penetrate into the lower levels.” reported Sam. “I’m so glad that Stark upgraded my gear for the wings. The goggles alone are worth having just in the ability to quickly analyze potential battlefields.”

“It does make our covert movements easier to plan. Your ability to pick out details now makes me think Tony was trying to really develop a falcons eyesight for the wings.” mused Steve as he scanned the area with his eyes. Making a decision and motioning Sam forward, he slid down a ladder mounted on the side of the building. He met Sam at the entrance to the hidden lab in the alley between two warehouses. The door looked like it had been ripped off its reenforced frame. This sight had become a common sight in their hunt for the Winter Soldier. 

As they proceeded down the hallway on the first floor, they saw the now familiar handiwork of the Winter Soldier. Bodies seemly thrown through walls, others sliced across the neck, and others just broken in ways that should have been not physically possible. This must have been a lab where they keep the Winter Soldier in suspended animation, because in other bases they followed Bucky to he would just fight his way in far enough to plant a bomb and blow it all to hell. 

They had slowly pieced together a picture of what Bucky had went though while in HYDRA’s hands. Brainwashing, electrode-shock therapy, freezing him when they didn’t need him and the procedure where they gave him the metal arm he has was the worst The more Steve learned, the more he was determined to help his friend. Sam may have not known Bucky before, but the more he learned, the more he wanted to make sure that what was done to him never happened again.

They slowly eased their way down hallways as they work through the levels in the underground labs. They were watching for any left behind personnel that they didn’t notice the person sneaking up on them until Steve caught a gleam off a familiar metal arm in a window from the corner of his eye. As he spun to be ready for the attack he was certain was coming, he was surprised to see the Winter Soldier standing in a ready attack stance but showing empty hands. 

“I’ve been watching you as you followed me for the last couple of raids. I visited the exhibit they have on you. You had a friend named Bucky but his name was James Barnes. I have flashes of memories of you. Am I Bucky? Who am I?” the tense dark haired super soldier asked.

“You are James Buchanan Barnes, sometimes called by the nickname Bucky. You are my best friend in the world. And now that I found you I never want to lose you like I thought I did once. I know that you won’t be the same person that you were but I still want to help if you want. If you need to keep destroying these bases, I help or if its something you need to do on your own I will be waiting. All I want is to help you.” Steve rushed out in case Bucky disappeared in the next moment.

“He’s not the only one who wants to help. I know you don’t know me, but as I have been helping Steve track you, I’ve been piecing together some of what you were put through. If its only a small part of it, it was too much. The things done to you should have never been done to anyone, let alone a war hero like you.” Sam said from the side trying to look as nonthreatening as possible with a backpack that turned in to giant metal wings.

“The part of me that of me that shouts its Bucky says your friends and that I could trust you.” the Winter Soldier said as he looked between the two of them. “Yet the part that is the Operative says that your threats and to trust no one. That I don’t need to think of anything else but the mission. Though it is confused as to why I changed the mission. It says the mission is to kill Captain America. But Bucky says no, Steve is Captain America, we can’t kill Steve. But the Operative gets quieter a little more everyday and after every chair we destroy. The longer we go with out returning for treatment, the more we remember.” he talked as he stared off into space only to quickly refocus on them, tensing although waiting to be attacked due to being distracted. He seemed totally in shock that they didn’t take advantage of his lapse of attention. Perhaps they were telling the truth that they just wanted to help him. Maybe that is what made him say what he did.

“If you truly want what is best for me, then quit following me. You keep leading HYDRA troops on my trail and I have to keep taking them out. If you have some way to help me find the other chairs, you can give me the information and go. I will find you when I am ready and have more control. It is taking all my willpower not to kill you both. I promise to contact you when I am ready.” he offered.

“Alright. It’s better then I thought we would get when we finally caught up to you. But I can do you one better. I’ll give you my secure Starkphone. Tony altered it so that it can’t be hacked and that it connects to the tower directly. Through it we can provide you with any info you need and if you ever need help, we can find you. And if you ever want to come in, you can find us at the Avengers tower in New York. Does that sound good to you? You don’t have to accept.” answered Steve.

“Slide the phone across the floor. Wait ten minutes before you leave. I will see when I am ready. Goodbye Steve.” 

“Goodbye Bucky. Good luck.” whispered Steve as Bucky slipped back into the shadows. 

“Well that went better then I ever thought it would've. I’ll admit to about shitting myself when he spoke up. Never even sensed he was there. HYDRA really trained him to be sneaky.” Sam said as he released a breath he had been holding the entire time.

As he stared after his friend, Steve said “They didn’t train him to do that. That was all Bucky, he could sneak up on just about anyone. Well except one person, a guy by the name of James Howlett. He was part of our Howling Commandos, swear he could sense whenever Bucky was sneaking up on him. Also a right bastard in a fight, great if he was on your side, terrible if you weren’t. Had these three bone claws that shot out of the back of his hands. He would tear through enemy soldiers like a hot knife through butter. Well I think that’s been ten minutes.”

After checking the time, they started making their way back up to the surface. On the way Sam asked if they were going to head back to New York the next day. Before Steve could answer, J.A.R.V.I.S. broke in to inform them that he had already sent a jet to retrieve them. When they asked how the AI had known that they needed a ride, he informed them that Sam had accidentally left the connection open when they met earlier with the rest of the team. When he heard a voice print match to the Winter Soldier, he had started to listen in and plan various scenarios to help if the need arose. He congratulated Steve on finding his friend and asked if they wanted to meet the jet at the airport on their own or if he should dispatch a helicopter to pick them up. They agreed to the helicopter since they had all their gear stored on the near by rooftop and wanted to get out of the area before the broken into lab was discovered by others.

Fifteen minutes later they were airborne when they heard a huge explosion from the direction they had just left. Steve and Sam just shared a look as they figured the Winter Soldier had covered his track in spectacular fashion.


	6. Chapter 6

Once Steve and Sam returned back to the tower, everyone’s lives fell into a loose routine. Steve, Clint, Natasha, Sam and Thor would train in the newly built train facilities Tony had put in. Tony and Bruce would work in the labs. Jane started working in her new lab and wondered why she didn’t go into the private sector before, when she would remember everyone else but Tony Stark thought her ideas were crazy. Darcy tried to keep up with three scientists, but it was hard to help them when so much of what they said went over her head. At least when it had been just been Jane, she could get her to speak in plain English part of the time. She figured that they hadn’t killed themselves yet so she would just do her best.

Maria Hill had started to hire people to start Tony’s security program. She was pleasantly surprised at how much J.A.R.V.I.S. dug into applicants lives. They had already caught three deep cover HYDRA operatives trying to infiltrate into the new program. They had not enjoyed being interrogated by Hawkeye and the Black Widow. One started talking even before being turned over to the two of them. Everything was going pretty smoothly, which only meant that something had to happen.

That something came in the form of a very pissed off Army general. One that one member of the Avengers had a lot of contact with in the past and another that was about to reach his limit with him.

“Sir, there seems to be a very agitated Army commander in the lobby demanding to have the Hulk turned over to him to protect the citizens of the city. Shall I inform Dr Banner?” J.A.R.V.I.S. informed Tony as he was working in his lab.

As he quickly looked to see if Bruce was around and see him in another lab working on an experiment, Tony said “No do not inform Dr Banner. I’ll go talk to the asshole in the lobby. I see he finally decided to show up in person. If he thinks I’m letting him take my best friend he has another thing coming.” As he stalked onto the elevator, he told J.A.R.V.I.S. to monitor the situation and to be ready to call the rest of the avengers for support.

When he entered the lobby, he immediately spotted the man in question. He was standing ramrod straight at parade rest in the middle of the floor like he owned it. Unfortunately for him the man who did own it had arrived and he wasn’t happy, far from it.

“Stark! I’ve come to take the monster, the Hulk, into custody. He needs to be locked up for the safety of everyone. If you don’t turn him over, I’ll have you all charged with endangerment of the public.” General Ross loudly informed him.

“Bring it on. I’ve got a shitload of lawyers that love eating ridiculous claims like that for lunch. I’ve told you I’m never going to turn over Bruce and that’s finally.” Tony shot back.

“If you won’t see reason and turn him over peaceably, I’ll take him by force. I will storm this building and take him. Is that what you want?” stated General Ross as he started to get red faced.

“Did you just threaten to invade the home of the team of beings that defeated an invading army of aliens? Hahahahahahahahaha oh my god, I thought you were smarter then that. As to what I want, I want you to leave and never come back. I want you to fucking get out of here **AND TO NEVER BOTHER BRUCE AGAIN!!** ” Tony shouted at Ross.

“I’ve told you before that I will get the Hulk. I’ve asked you to turn him over, now I’m not leaving here without him. I’ve got an entire platoon of soldiers here to back me up. How are you going to stop me?” asked the general as his patience snapped.

“Stop you? Have you fucking forgot who you are talking to? I am Tony fucking Stark. I made most of the weapons you use. But besides that, I’m fucking Ironman, I could wipe you from the planet without breaking a sweat. Stop you? No problem. Now that we have established that, here is what is going to happen. You are going to leave my damn building and never come back. Because if you do I’m going to meet you at the door in my suit and break every one of your fucking bones. You will never bother Bruce again. If something happens to him, the first person I will come to is you. I swear to everything I hold holy, if I ever heard of your bigoted, hateful, annoying voice even saying his name, I will bring the wrath of heaven and hell down on your head!” Tony exploded back at him. As a final insult he shot forward and whispered into the general’s face “And if I can manage it, I’m going to make him your fucking son-in-law.” At that he finally shook the general.

From behind them, they suddenly heard a slow clapping. When Tony turned to look, he saw Steve, Natasha and Clint watching. Clint was actually eating popcorn like he was watching entertaining show.

“What, no Thor?” Tony asked as he cocked an eyebrow.

“He’s outside scaring the piss out of the general’s troops. Falcon is doing a fly around the building to make sure there aren’t any surprises. By the way, General Ross, you know that containment unit that you brought with you? Thor made a nice scrap sculpture out of it. I don’t know how you thought it would hold the Hulk.” Clint answered as he snacked on his popcorn, offering it to Natasha over his shoulder.

“Oh and general if Tony’s threats weren’t enough to detour you, he has the full support of the rest of Avengers behind him. We protect our own. Remember that or we will remind you forcefully.” Steve stated with all the authority he had. Natasha just nodded as she cleaned her nails with a knife while flicking popcorn into her mouth a piece at a time.

And on that note, I’ll quote everyone’s favorite one-eyed pirate, GET OUT OF MY MOTHERFUCKING SIGHT!!” shouted Tony as he pointed at the door. He just stared the general down till he had left the building. “So how long were you guys there?” he asked when he turned around.

“Pretty much the whole time, J.A.R.V.I.S. had us come down almost immediately since the general had troops outside. When Thor found out that they were here to take Bruce, I had to make him promise not to kill any of them. I did give him the go ahead to put the fear of a god into them. From what J.A.R.V.I.S. has told us, they really might of pissed themselves. One of them stuck a gun in his face and Thor ripped it out of his hands and wadded it up into a ball and handed back. That seems to be the point when a lot of fight went out of them.” answered Steve.

“I was a little late, I had to get some popcorn to enjoy the show. You were excellent by the way. Very scary.” piped up Clint.

“Yes, I don’t think I could of threatened him any better myself. I especially liked how you made him blanch white at the end. What did you say to him that got that kind of response?” chimed in Natasha.

“A low blow that I knew would hit him where it hurts. I’ll let you know later. Its a work in progress and if it works out, it will really piss him off.” retorted Tony as he walked toward the elevators, the others following as he moved past them.

The four of them headed to the communal floors as the others wanted an explanation of why General Ross wanted Bruce. As they stepped off the elevator, they were met with the sight of Thor and Sam landing on the balcony outside. Once the six of them were seated around the room in comfortable chairs and couches, Tony explained how when Bruce first turned into the Hulk, he had been working on replicating the super soldier serum that Steve had been given. He had thought gamma radiation was the key, but it turns out he was wrong, as seen by the Hulk. He was working for the government and the Army had been interested in his research. General Ross was the man in charge of overseeing the Army’s contracts with the various super soldier research. So the man had first hand knowledge of the power of the Hulk. He thought the Hulk was a monster and dangerous, but he also wanted to study him to try to make controllable versions of the Hulk. He thought of the Hulk only as a weapon.

As they all sat absorbing the information they heard from the doorway of the stairs “How long has he been trying to get you to turning me over, Tony?” as Bruce stood leaning against the frame.

“Since shortly after the Battle of New York. He sent a minion to inform me that they would be taking custody of the Hulk since he destroyed half of Manhattan. My response was to tell him I was pretty sure the invading alien army had something to do with the destruction, the Hulk was a hero and he could stick his threat where the sun doesn’t shine and to never come back. Then the little pecker-wood tell me he’s authorized to use lethal force and pulled a gun on me. So I summoned me armor and dumped him and his car in the middle of the river. Didn’t really go over too well with Ross. He’s been threatening to come get you every few months since. It seems now that we don’t have SHIELD backing he thought he could just sweep in and get you. What he forgot was that we didn’t kowtow to SHIELD or Fury, I’m Tony Fucking Stark and he is not taking my best friend. Period.” explained Tony as he stood up to face his friend.

“Tony you shouldn’t have kept this from me. I never wanted to get you into trouble or bring it to your doorstep. I would have went somewhere else, took this away from you all. Ross is my cross to bear not yours. I never should have brought these burdens into your lives. Besides I am just a time bomb, a monster, just one slip from being a danger to you all.” Bruce said with a resigned sigh. He had really enjoyed his stay here, but it was time for him to leave, so that the Hulk didn’t bring his friends lives down around their ears.

“Excuse me but that’s not true, Dr Banner. He may have been your problem, but now he is ours. And we are his if he thinks that he will ever lay a hand on you. You may have been alone before but you are a part of a team now, if not a family and we take care of our own.” stated Steve as he stood shoulder to shoulder with Tony, Sam nodding in agreement from his spot on a couch.

“Aye, Friend Banner. You are a brother in arms and I too will shield you from harm as long as I am able to stand, till my blood stains the ground have given my life in protection.” vowed Thor as he too stood with them. “You possess a great power, yes a destructive force, but one that can be a force for good. You must stop seeing yourself as a monster and as a warrior of good.”

“How am I suppose to do that? The Hulk is uncontrollable. He doesn’t listen to anyone. All he does is destroy.” ranted Bruce, pacing back and forth in agitation.

“Not true. When I found you in Calcutta, you were doing a fine job of controlling the Hulk. You hadn’t had an incident in over a year. Hell it took an explosion to make you lose your grip on that control. He held yourself in check under extraordinary circumstances. The Hulk is not uncontrollable, just hard to handle.” provided Natasha as she looked on from a couch with her head on Clint’s shoulder.

“As to him listening to anyone, he listened to the Captain during the Battle of New York. He can be worked with, he just needs training.” Tony pointed out.

“Training? Where do you propose I do that? Cause I’m pretty sure the training floor can’t handle that.” Bruce retorted.

“Actually there is a place. In the basement of the tower. I constructed a Hulk proof room for you. And before you protest it can’t be Hulk proof, I triple layered the walls, floor, and ceiling in Adamantium. I locked Thor in there and told him do his worse. Not even a dent. And because I know how your mind works, before you say its all well and good to have but what if you aren’t near the Hulk-out room, I already took care of that too. Down one side of the tower, I am building a fifteen foot by fifteen foot shaft that will feed directly into the room. Cause if you’re hulking out, no need to worry about an elevator, plus the Hulk can survive the fall.” answered Tony, stunning Bruce at the steps he had taken to clams his fears, to make him feel safe.

“I think they’ve cut the legs out of any argument you might have. Like or not, you’re stuck with us. If you leave, we’ll just track you. We’ll be at the ready to help and protect you anytime you need it. So might as well stay. Besides I want to see if I can get the Hulk to let me ride on his shoulders. That would be awesome.” said Clint, throwing in his two cents.

Confronted with the show of support and trust his friends had shown him, Bruce could only mumble a tear choked thank you. He had been moments from walking away from them all. He had really never expected to be able to stay, not in his heart. He had been on the move so long it was the only thing he really knew. Maybe he could actually put down the roots he so desperately wanted.

As the tension from almost losing Bruce started to leave the room, Darcy walked off the elevator and asked “Hey Thor, can you explain why there is a tow truck downstairs burning its tires off trying to tow an Army jeep with you hammer holding the front end down?”

As everyone laughed, Thor sheepishly summoned his hammer from downstairs where he had left it. Tony then had J.A.R.V.I.S. order take out for everyone and declared the rest of the day they were playing hooky. He even called Pepper to leave work early, stating she was needed, to which she said she was already almost there as J.A.R.V.I.S. had shown her everything that had happened.

That night Bruce went to bed believing that he truly had a place in the world he was wanted, not just tolerated because people didn’t want to get him angry or wanted something from him. It would be a few days before he realized that it was also the first time he had slept so well since the accident that birthed the Hulk had happened. It would be another while before he realized it was because that both him and the Hulk felt acceptance after that day and would do everything in their power to protect it.

===========================================================================================

It was about a week after the visit of General Ross and Pepper was doing a final interview with a very promising candidate for her new P.A., which she desperately needed. The young woman she was meeting with was a certifiable genius actually, and when Pepper pointed that out, that she could just about get a job anywhere she wanted, the young woman said that she didn’t want to work just anywhere, that she wanted to work at Stark Industries.

“Well Ms Stacy, I don’t have any further questions. Welcome to Stark Industries. I feel that you will fit in around here very well. Head down to HR to finish filling out the paperwork and stop by Security to get your picture taken for your ID badge so it can be ready when you start tomorrow. I know you have a half a semester left till you graduate early, so we’ll work around your schedule until you finish. Any questions?” Pepper addressed to the young woman seated in front of her desk.

“No I don’t think so. Wow I can’t believe I did it. I really never thought I had a chance. Thank you for this wonderful opportunity, I won’t let you down.” Gwen answered, slightly awed that she had did it.

As Gwen got up and left, Pepper turned to read an update on a project she had been working on to surprise Bruce. She saw that J.A.R.V.I.S. had found the replacement she had been searching for. Now she just had to talk a certain professor into a job at Stark Industries and to help her with her complete her project. She felt pretty confident though. She had looked into the professor’s background and life. What she found made her feel she would be doing a lot of good for two people.

“J.A.R.V.I.S. can you have Dr Foster come up to my office, please?” asked Pepper.

“Yes Ms Potts, Dr Foster is on her way” answered J.A.R.V.I.S.

“Thank you, J.A.R.V.I.S.” she said as she waited for Jane.

When Jane appeared and sat in front of the desk Pepper asked “Do you know a Dr Elizabeth Ross from Culver University?”

“Yes I do. She’s a gifted scientist, and a good friend. Why?” Jane answered.

“I’m thinking of offering her a job here and was wondering if you thought she would be a good fit. That she wouldn’t make anyone uncomfortable being here.” Pepper said watching Jane from the corner of her eye, wondering if she would catch on to what was being done.

“I don’t think it should be a problem. The only person that might be uncomfortable is Dr Banner.” Jane answered. She suddenly thought of what she just said and narrowed her eyes at Pepper. “But that’s what your hoping for isn’t? You are playing matchmaker!” she laughed. “I only got one thing to ask.”

“What’s that?” asked Pepper.

“Can I help?”

“I was counting on it.”

===========================================================================================

Dr Elizabeth ‘Betty’ Ross had never been one of the type of scientist that did what she did for money, but the offer she had received from Stark Industries was large enough even to get her attention. So even though she was flattered that they thought that she was worth that kind of money, she was preparing herself to turn down the offer. Though there was something tickling in the of her mind that she couldn’t quite grasp, something that she knew that was important. Besides she was up for tenure and she was confident that she would get it. But until then she would have to make due with meeting the representative from Stark Industries at one of the table at a local outdoor cafe.

So when the representative turned out to be the CEO, Virginia Potts, to say she was surprised would be an understatement. Add in her old friend, Dr Jane Foster, being there and she started to think no was an answer she wasn’t going to be given the option to give.

“Hello Dr Ross. It is very nice to meet you in person. Jane and others have told me so much about you, I feel that I know you already. That’s why I feel you would be a great fit at Stark Industries. Have you had a chance to look over the offer that was sent to you? As you can see we are offering a very competitive employment package.” Pepper started in as soon as she sat down across from Betty, hoping to get her off balance.

“Yeah I looked over the offer. I don’t think you know what competitive means because there isn’t another company on the planet that could match that offer. But even so I came here to turn down the offer because I like being able to do my research and science for the reasons I started with at the beginning of my career, to help people and the purity of the work. Now I’m getting a feeling that isn’t going to happen.” answered Betty.

“Oh, why is that?” asked Pepper as she arched an eyebrow. Jane tried to hide a grin at how the meeting was proceeding.

“Well from the snow job your trying to pull on me, you’re not leaving without a positive answer. Plus Jane hates recruiting people. She’s like me, much rather be in the lab then anywhere near any kind of administrative work. Yet here she is trying not to laugh her ass off at the situation. I grew up with a military father, I know when someone is trying to feed me a line of bullshit. So how about we lay our cards on the table and see how this all falls out.” offered Betty, more intrigued the longer she sat there.

Turning to Jane, Pepper said, “You were right, she didn’t buy it at all. Saw right through me instantly. Now I want her for myself. I get the feeling Tony won’t know what hit him.” This set Jane to laughing so hard, she snorted. As her friend tried to get herself under control, Pepper turned to Betty saying, “You want the truth? I here playing matchmaker. I want to get you and Bruce Banner together. I know he still loves you. I’ve caught him on more than one occasion staring at a well worn picture of you. He doesn’t think I know he carries it everywhere with him, in his shirt pocket over his heart. That is what I’m really here for. I willing to pay the salary of your replacement, which I already have lined up, for five years. I will donate a quarter a million dollars to the science department for ten years. All I need is a yes.”

Betty was so stunned that you could have pushed her over with a feather. So when Jane reached over and poked her in the cheek, she didn’t react right away. “I think you broke her Pepper. You did kind of throw a curveball at her, damn just laid all out and hit her up side the head with it.” Jane said as she looked at Pepper.

“When you lay your cards on the table, you go all in don’t you? Its like you know the one thing to dangle in front of my face to get me to do what you want. I suppose you know that I’ve never gotten over Bruce, that he was the one true love of my life. Did you know I’m up for tenure this year? Of course you did. If I do this how do I know that Bruce will even want to get back together? What if he breaks my heart again?” babbled Betty as she sat there with a glassy look in her eyes.

Sighing, Pepper reached over and lightly slapped her the face and said “I going to tell you something that Bruce told Tony one time when they got piss drunk shortly after the Battle of New York. He told Tony that he was still in love with you, that the only reason he left was to protect you from the Hulk and the fallout from your father. That he didn’t want to be the reason for tearing the two of you apart. He said if you came back into his life, he would never let you go again. That is why he stays away, because if he had any contact he doesn’t think he could walk away again. And if Tony ever told anyone he would let the Hulk out in Tony’s Ironman suit vault. Only problem is that I was sitting on the couch opposite them and heard it all.”

“You don’t fight fair do you? You already have all my arguments countered don’t you?” asked a suddenly weary Betty.

“I’m engaged to Tony Stark. I have to be ready for anything at all times. So no offense, but figuring out all the moves and arguments you could make was child’s play. The only question I have for you now is, do you want to have another chance with Bruce or do you want to keep living the half life you been living since he left, working yourself to exhaustion so you sleep without dreaming, just kind of floating through life? So you’re right when you say I don’t fight fair. Another thing is that the tenure board hasn’t made the announcement yet but they are giving the tenure to a Dr Josephson.” supplied Pepper.

If she hadn’t already made up her mind to take a chance on Bruce, hearing that sexist, pig headed, asshole Josephson, had been have three years less than she had, was getting tenure over her would have done the trick. “When can we leave? I rather to take my chances in New York even if Bruce turns me down. Its got to be better then being overlooked once again because I have the wrong anatomical parts.”

“If you want to fly back with us, we can leave as soon as you have a bag packed. I’ll deliver the paperwork to the university while you start with that. Then due to my fiance having a private jet, we can leave this place in style. We’ll have anything else you want sent for or we can just have it donated to charity, OK?” answered Pepper as she picked up her phone to call the pilot.

A little more than an hour later the three woman were in the air headed for New York when Betty thought to ask, “If Bruce is working for Stark Industries, he must be very important for the CEO to take an interest in his love life. Or is this a way to keep the Hulk under control because he won’t hurt me. I’ll admit you had my head spinning earlier but I’ve had time to think now and I need some more information to bring the picture in to focus. Because if I didn’t let my father use me against him, I won’t let you either.” she finished crossing her arms, staring at Pepper.

“Betty, if I can call you that, how much do you know of Bruce’s life now a days?” asked Pepper.

“Not much. It was too painful to follow reports about him, like I was a love starved ex, obsessed with him. Also people stopped talking about him because they could see how much it would hurt me. I do know he caused some damage during the Battle of New York a couple years back. He always had bad luck in being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I just hope he didn’t cause too much damage. He never wanted to hurt anyone.” answered Betty.

“Oh my god. You don’t know. Pepper she doesn’t know! Wow, this plane ride just got a lot more interesting.” a surprised Jane said.

“Well let me be the first to tell you, Bruce and the Hulk weren’t in New York by accident. They were there as apart of the Avengers, the team that stopped the alien invasion. Him and the Hulk are heroes. Also he doesn’t work for Stark Industries per se, as much as he lines with us in the tower and is my fiance, Tony Stark's best friend. He is our friend too. We just want him to have the same happiness we have. That is the truth.” Pepper informed Betty, whose mouth slowly dropped further open as she listened. “He has many new friends that support him and would die to protect if need be. We also feel that he could control the Hulk better if he stopped fighting him so much and made peace with him. Maybe more of a blending of their abilities, instead of as Tony likes to joke ‘an enormous green rage monster’ and more of an unbeatable force for good.”

“I had no idea. I guess I kept my head down for so long that I missed all that. I’m so happy that he found friends that accept him at a personal level and not for what they can get from him. I can tell you truly care for him and only want his happiness. Thank you for taking care of him when he needed it and for coming to pull me back into the world of the living. I just hope Bruce still wants me.” Betty said with a slight tremor in her voice, overtaken with a mixture of emotions.

“He’ll probably try to remain distant at first, but I think in no time he will never want to let you go. Don’t worry you got this.” Pepper said as she reached over to squeeze the emotional woman’s hand. “We’ll have your back the whole time. Now is there anything else you would like to know?”

Betty nodded, asking for the two women to tell her about Bruce’s friends. The rest of the trip was filled with Pepper and Jane describing all the Avengers, telling funny stories to make her laugh and how they all got along with each other. Betty was stunned when she found out Jane was dating Thor, though she fell out of her seat laughing when Jane told her how she literally ran into him with her van when they first met. By the time the jet was touching down in New York, the three women were already sure that they would be best friends for life.

When Pepper asked her if she was ready for this, Betty straightened her spine and said she was more then anything.

===========================================================================================

Bruce was working in the lab with Tony, trying to help him with a problem he was having with one of his Ironman suits. They were trying to reproduce the energy shield that was around the portal machine from the battle of New York. So far with out the Tesseract, they didn’t have enough energy to sustain it. So he was well focused on the information in front of him he didn’t notice when Pepper stepped off the elevator with Jane and a guest.

Tony turned when Pepper leaned over and kissed him on the back of his neck. He scooped her up for a proper kiss, noticing afterwards that they had company. When he looked at Pepper questioningly, she pointed at Betty and Bruce. His eyes lit up, his smile turning a little mischievous. He mouth ‘now’ in question. When they turn to Betty, she just took a deep breath and nodded.

“Bruce you got a minute? I just hired a new person to work in the science department and I wanted to introduce them to you.” Pepper said with a huge grin, hoping this wouldn’t blow up in their faces.

As he turned, Bruce took off his glasses to wipe a smudge off one of the lens, looking down to put them back on as he stood up saying “Well if you hired them personally, they must be a hell of a scientist.”

“I like to think I’m not too bad, you used to think I was one of the best.” answered Betty.

“Betty?” “ _Betty_?” was all they heard when Bruce’s head shot up looking at Betty, before he fell in over in a dead faint.

“Was it just me or did both Bruce and the Hulk just talk at the same time?” asked a stunned Tony. “I didn’t even know that was possible.”

As they all stared at the unconscious man on the floor, they wondered what other surprises in their lives were to be seen.


	7. Chapter 7

As Bruce came back to conscientious, his mind foggy, he tried to remember what happened. What he wasn’t expecting was to hear a voice talk to him.

“Little Bruce, OK? You see Betty, too? I happy Betty here. Please no make Betty go again. I like Betty.”

He was flabbergasted. It was the Hulk’s voice, which usually was just roaring. The Hulk had never spoke to him before. He didn’t know what to think. He was still just as confused when his eyes shot open to meet the eyes the worried looks of his friends and ex-girlfriend. They were surprised too when the first thing he said was, “He spoke to me. he’s never talked to me before.”

“Who spoke to you Bruce? God? A dead relative?” joked Tony, trying to relieve some tension.

“No you ass. The Hulk spoke to me. Like actual words.” Bruce shot back at his friend. “He asked if I was OK and said he was glad to see Betty, not to send her away again.” he answered, just before he snapped his head around to look at the lady in question, starting to breathe quickly. “Betty! You’re here! Why? Ahhh! MOVE! J.A.R.V.I.S. open the Hulk chute, quickly!” came out in a rush as he stood up looking like he was having a heart attack, before turning on his heel to rush toward an opening hole in the wall and diving into the open shaft.

As she stared at Bruce as he fell down the open metal shaft after rushing after him, Betty asked, “Does anyone want to try to explain what that was and why you aren’t concerned that your friend just threw himself down an elevator shaft?”

“Well, that’s not an elevator shaft, it's a metal shaft that runs the entire height of the tower that connects to a reenforced room I built for Bruce to be safe in when he needs to let the Hulk out or as it was used for just now, an emergency. As to what happen before that, I have no idea. I’ve never heard him talk about talking to the Hulk before.” answered Tony from over his shoulder as he walked toward the elevator.

“Where are you going? Shouldn’t we go after him? You know down the shaft, make sure he’s safe?” she asked worriedly.

“I guess you could go down the shaft, I much prefer the elevator. The ride is smoother and there’s no sudden stop from hitting the floor of the room.” Tony drawled out, cocking up an eyebrow. He soon regretted it when Pepper smacked in the back of the head as she walked past him to enter the elevator, saying to Betty, “Come on, we’ll go down to check on Bruce right now. As for him being safe, I am sure he had already turned in to the Hulk by the time he got down there, if the green in his eyes is anything to go by.”

Pepper, Tony and Betty all headed down to the Hulk out room while Jane said she was going to find Thor to tell him what happened, just in case he was needed. When Betty asked why Thor might be needed, Tony informed her that they had just recently finished the room and that this was the actual first time it had been used. She then asked if they had just finished the room, what had they done when this type of thing happened before, to which they answered that it was the first time he had lost control in almost two years. When Pepper saw that Betty started to blame herself, she quickly explained that after the Battle of New York, when the team split up, Bruce had buried himself in work to numb himself to the world that he felt he had no place in. How it was just recently that they had all got back together and after a visit by Betty’s father, when his friends had stood up for him, that he had started to let them all in and start to feel more like teammate and friend and less of a monster.

When they reached the sub basement that the room was in, it was to be met with a frantic Black Widow and Captain America, beating on the door to the room.

“What’s going on? Why are you guys trying to break into the Hulk room?” asked Tony as he quickly joined them.

“Because me, Clint and Natasha were checking it out, when all of a sudden an alarm started going off and J.A.R.V.I.S. informed us the Hulk was inbound. We all hauled ass to make out of the room and it was only after the door closed that we realized that Clint was missing. He’s still in there with the Hulk.” Steve informed the other three.

“Well beating on the door isn’t going to help. It’s made out of adamantium. You couldn’t open this with a nuclear bomb.” Tony said, before addressing the ceiling, “J.A.R.V.I.S., is the Hulk still active or has he calmed back down into Bruce? Is Clint OK too?” 

Betty jumped when the AI answered, “Dr Banner is still in his Hulk form and Mr Barton appears unharmed. The two of them appear to be involved in a game of what I believe is called tag.”

“You have got to be shitting me. Show us, J.” said a disbelieving Tony, who started laughing as the nearby monitors lit up to show a grinning Hawkeye being chased around the room by a clumsy Hulk. Everyone crowded around to see the rare sight of the Hulk having fun. Natasha let out a breath she had been holding while at the same time planning to hurt Clint for scaring her like that.

“You think its safe to go in?” asked Steve

“Only one way to find out, J.A.R.V.I.S. unlock the door and Let's hope the Hulk doesn’t freak out on us. Everyone ready?” Tony asked as he looked at everybody.

After J.A.R.V.I.S. disengaged the locks, they entered to find that Clint was riding around on the Hulk’s shoulder laughing and whooping. He smiled at all of them until he met Natasha’s eyes, which promised that he was in a lot of trouble.

“I think playtime’s over big guy. Let me down OK?” Clint said as the other walked closer cautiously. 

The Hulk stopped in place and let Clint jump down. He looked over the people coming closer when he saw Betty at the back of the group and lunged toward the group. Steve was ready to intervene only to be stopped by Betty’s upturned hand as she stepped forward saying, “Don’t worry. He would never hurt me. Would you Hulk?” as the Hulk carefully picked her up and rubbed his check against hers.

“OK, I have to ask. Who is she and how does she know the Hulk? I’ve never seen him act like that.” Steve addressed to Tony and Pepper.

“That my friend is Betty Ross, Bruce’s ex girlfriend. She was present when Bruce had his accident and already has a bond with the Hulk from him protecting her before. What’s stumping me is that the Hulk appears calm, yet no Bruce.” answered Tony. “Also I would like to know what you were doing, Clint? Why you stayed in here when the alarm went off.”

As the Hulk sat and stroked Betty’s hair, Clint who was being held by his ear like a naughty child as a pissed off Russian assassin cussed him out in her native language, started to explain how he had been running for the exit when the Hulk hit the floor with a load bang. He looked over his shoulder wondering if he was going to be able to make it, when he noticed that the Hulk was just laying there like he was stunned. Because that didn’t seem like his normal behavior, he decided to turn around and check on the Hulk at the last second, wondering what was wrong with him. When he got to him, Clint asked if he was alright to which the Hulk grunted in a yes and told him that Bruce was sleeping. 

“When I asked him to explain, he said that Bruce was a sleep and Hulk was awake. So I thought if he had some fun, maybe he’d get happy and turn back.” Clint said as he ended his explanation.

“I think Bruce fainted again when he started to fall, because of the shock, of see Betty again. Like it was too much to process. I also think the Hulk protected him from the fall by completing the transformation.” Pepper said, throwing out her theory.

“Sounds like the most likely scenario I guess. But why hasn’t Bruce reappeared? Why is he still the Hulk?” mused Tony, getting an answer from the last person they expected.

“Little Bruce sleep. Hulk protect Bruce till he wake up and tell Hulk he OK. Betty stay with Hulk? Hulk and little Bruce miss Betty. Why Betty go away?” the Hulk answered and asked.

As Betty tried to explain to him why she had not been with them, the other people in the room stood in stunned silence. Finally, Steve stepped forward to ask “Excuse me, but Hulk do you remember meeting us before? Do you know who we are?”

The Hulk nodded his head yes as he pointed at Steve, Tony, Pepper, Clint, and Natasha, as here said, “You blue star man, little Bruce say I listen to you. You metal man, you little Bruce friend, say you like Hulk. You metal man’s Betty. You make metal man happy. You arrow man. You fun. Not afraid of Hulk. Play with Hulk. You red hair lady. You arrow man’s Betty. You find little Bruce. Little Bruce tease you. You no like tease. Hulk sorry he chase you when little Bruce hurt on flying place. Where thunder man? He fun to hit. Hulk no break thunder man.”

“Amazing. How do you know Pepper? You’ve never met her face to face.” asked Steve.

“Hulk see out little Bruce’s eyes. Always with little Bruce. Little Bruce know, Hulk know. Hulk go now. Little Bruce wake up.” he informed them as he started to lose size, slowly turning back into Bruce. Betty quickly got up off his lap, making sure not accidentally move his ripped pants, so he wouldn’t be embarrassed.

As Bruce woke up a second time in a short period, he realized that he was on the floor again, sitting this time and in what he recognized as the Hulk room Tony had built in a sub basement for him. He looked up to find most of his friends and his ex girlfriend, who he didn’t imagine before, staring back at him. “What happened? Why are you all looking at me like that?” he asked.

“A lot has happened. More than I feel comfortable talking about with you sitting buck ass naked on the floor. How about you go get you some clothes and then meet the rest of us up in the living room?” stated Tony as he held out a hand to help up his best friend and to shield him in case his pants slipped.

“Yeah. That’s probably a good idea. I’ll meet you all up there as soon as I get dressed.” Bruce said when he was standing. They all turned to leave for the elevator, going ahead of him so he wouldn’t be embarrassed if his pants ripped the rest of the way.

Fifteen minutes later, Bruce stepped off the elevator to find that everyone that had been in the Hulk room had been joined by Thor, Jane, Darcy, and Sam. They all were introducing themselves to Betty since she had only really met Pepper and Tony, having known Jane from when they worked at the university. Everyone soon found seats so that they could discuss what had happened. Pepper and Jane told a slightly altered story of going to recruit Betty, not wanting to mention their matchmaking plan. Then Tony explained about what went on in the labs, with Bruce speaking in two voices before fainting at the sight of Betty, to him waking up and throwing himself down into the Hulk room when his heart rate spiked at the combined surprise of Betty and the Hulk speaking to him in his head. Clint picked up the story after that with a dirty look from Natasha, explaining what happened in the room as Steve inputted what happen on the outside. Steve continued on with the story from the Hulk wanting to get close to Betty, to their combined surprise when the Hulk talked to them. They all got a chuckle from the look on Thor’s face when they told him what the Hulk said about him. 

Afterwards, Bruce sat and processed all that had happened. He was trying to figure out how to talk to Betty, when J.A.R.V.I.S. interrupted, “Sir, Ms Hill is requesting to speak to you. She says that it is life and death important.”

“Fuck, she has the worse timing. Patch her though.” Tony said as he turned toward the TV to talk to Maria.

“Good, you’re all there. We’re getting reports of a small town in up state New York that is been held for ransom by some HYDRA agents that are demanding the release of people they are claiming the government have. They have corralled everyone outside the town in some kind of outdoor amphitheater beside what looks like a mobile base. They set a three hour limit on the release of their people before they start shooting hostages, one every fifteen minutes past the deadline. The local sheriff is overwhelmed and the government can’t appear to give into terrorist threats. I think the Avengers should take care of this.” Maria laid out in her most efficient matter.

As Tony turned to look at the rest of the team, they all nodded. Steve stood up telling Maria to let the locals they were on their way. Then he told his teammates to suit up and meet on the roof, where they had started to keep their very own quinjet for just such a time.

Betty turned to Pepper to ask what was going on, to be informed that the Avengers were going on a mission. Pepper told her that they would get J.A.R.V.I.S. to kept them updated and that they probably wouldn't be very long. She also told her that Bruce would be fine and that they only used the Hulk as a last resort, that Bruce usually just made sure no one got hurt. Betty nodded, saying she wasn’t worried, that she knew Bruce would be fine. When the other women asked how she knew that, Betty told them she had seen the Hulk take on an entire infantry unit, armored unit and win with no problem. Hell she had been saved by him when a pilot crashed a helicopter into the Hulk, almost injuring her. She said if he can survive that, then she was worried. The four women headed to the roof to see the team off.

When they got to the roof, it was to find Tony in his Ironman suit and Bruce waiting for the rest of the team. Bruce walked over to talk to Betty as Thor and Sam flew up from the side of the roof to land beside the jet. He told her that they would talk when he got back about their situation. He quickly rejoined the others as Steve, Clint, and Natasha stepped off the elevator ready to go. The four women watched the jet take off, hoping that they would bee safe.

===========================================================================================

It was only about ten minutes into the flight that when Clint threw out, “Bruce and Betty sitting in a tree, first comes love, then comes Hulk, then com-” before Natasha reached up and put a hand over his mouth giving him a level look. But the dam had been broken and the rest of the team wanted to know about the beautiful dark hair woman that had captured both Bruce and the Hulk’s hearts. So Bruce reluctantly told them about meeting her in college and falling in love, the accident with Hulk and her being hurt, his leaving to protect her, saving her when he was attacked at Culver University, her bonding with the Hulk, the battle with the Abomination in Harlem and how he had to run again afterwards. As he told them he had stayed away to protect her even though it hurt more than anything he had experienced in his life, they arrived where they were setting down to check out the hostage situation. They were having Sam and Tony doing a fly by to send back info so Steve could flesh out a plan of action. Just before he left, Tony asked Bruce, “So if you love her so much, what’s to stop you and her from trying again?”

“I don’t want to hurt her. I have to protect her.” was Bruce’s answer.

“Well seems to me that all you’re doing is hurting her, yourself, and the Hulk by staying apart. You may have had to stay away to protect her before, but not now. You live in Avengers tower, you have friends that would never let any harm come to her or you, so what is stopping you?” Tony said right before flipping down his faceplate and taking off, leaving Bruce to think it over.

Soon the rest of them were receiving data on the group of hostage takers. It quickly became apparent that these were not HYDRA agents, but some kind of militia group that had stumbled upon a hidden weapon cache. Steve had Sam and Tony come back to pick up Clint and Natasha to fly them to the other side of the amphitheater where they were going to start quietly subduing guards and see if they could start getting hostages out. He and Thor were going to confront the main group from the front with Sam providing support from the air, while Tony took out the mobile base vehicle. Once he made sure everyone was on board with the plan and making sure was in communication via earwigs, they quickly left the jet to get into position.

In the end it took the Avengers all of twenty minutes to bring the hostage situation under control. Clint and Natasha took out two guards each and had most of the hostages out of danger within the first five minutes, when Thor dropped out of the sky like a meteor drawing most of the attention towards the others like they planned. It became quickly obvious that the weapons were nonfunctional when Tony analyzed them and discovered that they had no power source to make them work. So when Thor reached out and crushed one of them in his hand, the militia members threw down their weapons and surrendered. It took longer for the authorities to show up from the safe distance they had been keeping than the Avengers took to resolve the situation. Tony and Steve collected all the weapons and got the location of the weapons cache from the militia members before they headed back to the quinjet. As they all entered the cargo area Tony contacted Maria Hill to arrange for a team of personal to head for the weapon cache to pack it up for transport to the tower.

When they were lifting off as Clint and Sam were joking how easy the mission had been they could of almost phoned it in, Tony found Bruce still sitting in the same seat he’d been in before like he hadn’t even got up while they had all been gone. When he shook the man’s shoulder, Bruce jumped like he’d seen a ghost, asking if they needed his help. Looking at him cautiously, Tony told him they were done and on their way home. Bruce seemed surprised that much time had passed and when Tony asked what he had been thinking about, Bruce told him that he’d been talking to the Hulk and loss track of time he guessed. 

“So you were able to actually talk to him? Is it hard to do?” asked Tony.

“It turns out its fairly easy to communicate with each other, so no it not hard to do. I think the reason we hadn’t ever before like this is my fear of him and my trying to suppress his influence on my mind. Which apparently made him angry and stay in a rage state. But it seems he can control his anger levels because I learned to do it to control him. He is not just controlled by anger but protectiveness of me and any he deems as his, Betty topping that list. We really have more to talk about. But I feel like the first time since the accident that I’m not the monster I was labeled as back then, that I can be a hero if I choose.” answered Bruce with a thoughtful look in his eye.

“So what you’re saying is that we could have both the Hulk and Dr Bruce Banner to depend on out in the field? If that’s the case, I have got to develop some kind of clothes that grow and shrink with you, because I don’t think you would want to be having your private business waving in the wind if you know what I mean.” joked Tony, wiggling his eyebrows.

“Hulk says your not funny. Next time he’s out and about, he’s going to pull off your suit to see how you like being bare assed out there.” shot back Bruce. 

“Come on big guy, if you want a show, all you got to do is ask. I’m not shy, I’ll flash you a shot.” retorted Tony.

“As funny as this conversation has gotten, I swear to god if you start stripping Stark, I’m going to get Natasha to cut off any exposed dangling bits.” broke in Clint as he walked past the two of them. “Besides, we’re two minutes out from the tower just to let you know.”

“Thanks for breaking up me and Bruce’s special bonding time, I really felt that I was going to get some over the breastplate action this time.” whined Tony, causing Bruce to bust out laughing.

Clint flipped him off as he walked off to take the jet off autopilot to land. Everybody all took their seats to strap in for the landing on the roof, since sudden shifts in weight could throw off the plane when landing vertically. As soon as the jet was set down the landing pad, they had the cargo door down to disembark, ready to strip out of their uniforms and shower and eat. Tony had already had J.A.R.V.I.S. call in their order to a Thai food restaurant to be delivered in about an hour.

As his teammates all went their separate ways, Bruce went looking for Betty to talk to her about their situation. He found her watching TV with Jane, Darcy and Pepper in the communal living room. When she saw him, she excused herself because she was ready to talk to him too. While he had been gone she had talked to Jane and Pepper about their relationships with their hero boyfriends and the problems and joys of them. She felt that now that she was here and had seen him again, she couldn’t be without him ever again. If he thought she was leaving, he had another thing coming.

They were silent as they rode the elevator down to his floor, which was still very sparse since Bruce had gotten use to getting by with little when he had been hiding around the world. When they stepped into his living room, he sat her down on the couch asking if she would like some tea while they talked.

“No I’m fine, Bruce come sit down. Now before you start to tell me how we can’t be together for my protection, I want you to know that I’m not going anywhere. I was living a half of a life without you. I ate, I slept, and I worked in the lab. That’s it. I would work myself to exhaustion to not dream, afraid I would dream of you and it would rip my heart out again like it did when you left me in Harlem that night. I know you had to leave, it doesn’t mean it didn’t hurt. I couldn’t even hear your name without it crushing me, so much so that I didn’t even know that you had helped during the Battle of New York. I just found out when Pepper told on the plane ride here.” Betty told Bruce, tears glistening in her eyes.

“Betty, I’m sorry. I never meant to hurt you in that way.” said Bruce, crushed that he had hurt her, no broke her like that.

“I know Bruce. All you have ever wanted was to keep me safe. I understand that. But now that I've seen you again, I can’t, no won’t go back to being without you. I’ve seen and talked to Pepper and Jane about how Tony and Pepper, Jane and Thor, even Clint and Natasha make it work. They deal with and god damn it I want to be to do the same thing. So no I won’t be going away, I’m here to stay. So you better get use to it.” stated Betty with every bit courage she could muster.

“I’ll admit that I was going to discuss keeping you safe earlier, before we were called away on the mission. I was thinking that as much as I loved you, I was still a threat to your safety. But my teammates wanted about you, so I told them all about you, us, the accident, my feelings, how much it hurt to stay away, everything. As we were getting prepared to scout out some information on the group earlier, Tony asked if I loved you so much, what was stopping us from trying again. I said I wanted to protect you, that keeping you safe was at the forefront of my mind. Then he told me that the only people I was hurting was you, me and the Hulk. That I may have to stay away before but I live here now, that I’m friends with superheros, who will protect you with everything in their power. So what was really keeping us apart? And it all came down to fear, my fear of hurting you, the Hulk hurting you, screwing up, of not being what is best for you. So as the team left to take care of the militia group, I sat there and I did something that had never done before. I talked to the Hulk, really talk to him and learned that being away from you hurts him just as much as it does me. That all he wants to do is protect me and you. So I guess what I’m saying is that I want you to stay now, tomorrow, and forever if you’ll have me. I don’t want to just get back together.” said Bruce, taking a deep breath and sliding off the couch down on knee, “Elizabeth Ross, will you do me the honor of being my wife?”

“YES! I will but we stay engaged for a while to get reacquainted with each other. OK?” answer Betty, bursting with joy. “I can’t wait to tell Pepper and Jane, I thought I was going to be fighting you to stay, this wasn’t even something I thought would happen. They are going to die.” she said with a laugh.

“Oh, I'll be right back, I’m doing this kind of backwards.” Bruce said as he hurried to his bedroom. When he came back he was holding a small black box, which he held out her. “I bought this the night before the accident, I was trying to figure out when to do it and that night I decided to just buy it and go for broke. I was going to give it to you afterwards.” he explained as she opened the box to find a simple old band with a small diamond in it. “I kept all this time as a hope towards the future, something to keep me going.”

He took it from her to slide the ring on her finger, after which she pulled his head down for a soul searing kiss.

“Dr Banner, Dr Ross, dinner has been delivered. Sir has asked that you join the rest of the team to eat.” interrupted J.A.R.V.I.S. 

“Shall we go get dinner and tell everyone the good news?” asked Bruce as he held her.

“yes lets, I can’t wait to see the look on their faces.” Betty said as she leads the way towards the elevator. “By the way, Pepper gave me entire floor higher in the tower with a better view. Since Tony built you a Hulk room and a quick way of getting there, do you suppose we could live there? Your floor is so low all you can see is the surrounding building faces.” she asked as they started up.

“Engaged ten minutes and already making demands.” How will I ever survive? He teased her as he nodded yes to her question, kissing her again.

==========================================================================================

As everybody was congratulating Bruce and Betty on their engagement, Tony snuck off to the side to find the piece of footage of the proposal, which he cleaned the audio of, enhanced the quality of the visual and clarified the overall clip so there wasn’t any doubt at who was on the video and what was happening. Once it was perfect he emailed it to certain general while having J.A.R.V.I.S. send him congratulatory bottle of champagne to rub some salt in the wound. Because he was Tony Fucking Stark and he was a dick like that.


	8. Chapter 7

Tony was sitting at one of his work tables in the lab with the designs for a subdermal communication system that would also allow J.A.R.V.I.S. to keep track of the team when out on a mission. He figured that it would be easier to keep in communication if they didn’t have to worry about them getting broke. That’s what he was supposed to be working on. What he really was doing was putting the finishing touches on a short animated clip for his favorite general. General Ross had blown his stack at learning Bruce Banner had proposed to his daughter and she accepted. He had threatened to take out the tower in his anger and only the order of the Joint Chiefs had stopped him from following through. What it didn’t stop was Tony’s new hobby of screwing with the general. He had sent him a pair of size 16 baby booties labeled Hulk baby first shoes, and Ross ran them over with a tank. Tony sent a tarp size baby blanket, Ross threw it into helicopter blades and burnt the remains. With this one Tony was hoping Ross would shoot his computer. He was sending an animated bedroom door shaking on its hinges, with a loud thumping sound ending with a Hulk roar and a recording of Betty saying “Oh Hulk!” he had made from security feeds. 

Tony sent it off while giggling like a cross between a school girl and a mad scientist. As he started getting back to his actual work by J.A.R.V.I.S. saying, “Sir, the director of SHIELD is trying to call, he says he will be here I a few moments. Shall I put him through?” 

“No, make Fury drag his ass in here. I got a few things I want to say to him face to face. Send him to the meeting room and call the rest of the Avengers. We can all let loose on him at the same time.” Tony said, starting to stretch his arms as he headed to the elevator. He didn’t want to strain a muscle when he punched Fury in the face.

As Tony stepped off the elevator on the meeting/mission planning floor, he saw that Steve, Sam, and Clint had beat him there. When Steve saw him, he said that they had been in the kitchen upstairs looking for something to eat after having come back from running in explanation to Tony's unasked question. Soon they were joined by Thor, Natasha, Bruce and Pepper. Just as they all got settled around the part of the table, J.A.R.V.I.S. announced that the director had arrived. They were all prepared to hurl insults, accusations and overall bad attitude when the door opened. What they were not prepared for was Phil Coulson to walk through the door instead of Nick Fury. As they all sat in stunned silence, Coulson said “Hey, great to see you guys again.”

The first out of their seats were Clint and Natasha, who hugged their former handler and best friend from both sides. As they pulled back, Natasha swept his legs out from under him as Clint punched him straight in the mouth. Before anything else happened, an tall Asian woman came sweeping in to attack the two of them and stand protectively over Coulson. When she went to go after them when they backed off, she was stopped by a firm hand on her knee from Coulson as he sat up on the floor. “I had that coming May, they were probably the two that took it the hardest at the news of my death. So I'm guessing they were pretty pissed when they found out that I was still alive and hadn’t contacted them.”

“You’re damn right we’re pissed мудак. You died on the Helicarrier and I had to tell Clint after the Battle of New York, watch it crush him that his best friend died. I had to hold myself together to help him when it was killing me too. You were my friend too and we had to learn you were alive from Tony Stark going through released SHIELD files. чертов ублюдок.” Natasha yelled as stalked to the other end of the room.  
“Phil, all I got to say is that you better be glad that I’m happy to see you and that we had some time to cool off. If you had shown up right after we discovered you were alive, I would of pin cushioned your ass to the wall and Agent May would have been next to you if she got in the way. I mourned you and you COULDN’T TELL ME, US YOU WERE ALIVE! I know that you are a stickler for the rules, but you could of bent them this once to give us a heads up. Dick move man, dick move.” added Clint from his seat beside Natasha. 

Coulson got up from the floor and took a seat at the end of the table, May sitting next to him alert to any other attacks. “I am truly sorry that you two went through that, as did the rest of you. But it was several months after the Battle of New York before I had recovered from what happened to me. When I was recovered, I was promoted to a higher level and given my own team. Also Fury wanted me to work the kinks out, make sure I was still the same man before I was allowed to contact you.” Coulson explained looking around the table.

“Me and Bruce have been through the research and procedures done to you. We understand what was done and why he was cautious of your mental state. What was done was monstrous and if the facility hadn’t been destroyed, me and Bruce would done it ourselves so it was never done to another person again. Still I agree with Blackhawk over there that you could of at least slipped us word of your pulling a Jesus act and coming back from the dead. You made Pepper cry and that’s not cool.” Tony said as he reached for Pepper’s hand while they stared down Phil. 

“I sincerely apologize to Ms. Potts for causing her any distress with my ‘death’, as well as the rest of you too. But if you have seen the reports on what my team and I have been dealing with since my coming back, you’d probably agree that we’ve been busy with some dangerous missions. We also discovered that the same people we were trying to stop were also trying to find me to discover how I cheated death. So I’ve been kind of busy trying to survive and its not like I wasn’t around. FitzSimmons liked experimenting on the Extremis from A.I.M. after your fight Tony. It seemed to be closely related the Centipede project we were chasing quite awhile. Thor we had to help with the clean up in Greenwich after you saved the world from ‘dark elves’, as described by a member of my team. May here really enjoyed the berserker’s staff we found there, it’s a very powerful weapon. She kicked a lot of ass with it. So we’ve been nearby, just supporting you from the shadows. But that’s become kind of hard to do with the discovery of HYDRA being in SHIELD and Natasha dumping everything on the web. Kind of hard to stay in the shadows when everyone is looking for you and distrusts you when you show up trying to help.” Coulson said to the entire room. He then turned toward Steve saying, “Now excuse me as I let out what Skye calls my inner fanboy, Captain is it true that the Winter Soldier was your friend Bucky Barnes? How is that possible? Is he here? Can I-.“ He stopped as May reached over placing her hand on the back of his hand to halt him from going full blown fanboy on Captain America.

Laughing at how Coulson was still so nervous around him, Steve said, “Bucky is not here at the moment. I hope that the situation changes soon so we can help him. He wasn’t able to remember much about his life or me. But I got through to him in the end and Sam and I tracked him down to extend an offer of help when he is ready. He’s starting to remember what was done to him and he has a lot of anger to deal with. I thought it would be better to let him direct that anger towards HYDRA then try to fight to bring him in and have it directed at us.”

“Well now that Coulson has had his Captain America fix, what I want to know is where is Fury? J.A.R.V.I.S. told us that the director wanted to talk to us and he’s a no show. Frickin’ one-eyed pirate,” grumbled Tony.

At that Coulson started to chuckle and Agent May’s mouth quirked up at the corners slightly. “Well as of shortly after the destruction of SHIELD, Fury came to me and handed me the last secret base locations and made me director of SHIELD. He said he trusted me to rebuild the organization the right way. So I couldn’t resist being all mysterious when I contacted J.A.R.V.I.S., it was too good a opportunity to pass up. So Tony my name isn’t Agent, it director Phil Coulson.” he said with a smile on his face.

“You’re the one everyone get to blame for SHIELD now and Fury gets to go off on his merry way doing his super spy shit, huh? Think you might of got the raw end of the deal on that one there Phil.” Clint shot back in response.

“I’ll admit it hasn’t been smooth sailing after the fall of SHIELD. People haven’t been very trusting or welcoming to us, but we’re still trying to do what we can to help even if they don’t want it. Someone’s got to take care of these problems, and most of the time they’re not a big enough to warrant having the Avengers show up. Also as Clint and Natasha know, sometimes it’s something that needs to be taken care of behind the scenes, without the public knowing.” answered Coulson.

“Well I think I can help with that if you’ll let me. As you probably know, I started a security organization after the fall of SHIELD, with Maria Hill in charge of it. I hadn’t given it a name as of yet, but I was thinking of trademarking SHIELD to use and call it SHIELD Security Solutions. That way we could bring some goodwill back to the name. I’d like to offer you and your team jobs there doing just what you’re doing now, just with better backing and unlimited resources. You and Maria would be co-directors with her in charge of the info gathering side and you in charge of field work or how ever you guys want to split it up. You’d be able to call on any of us to help out if the situation called for it or the whole team if need be. What do you say?” Tony offered as the thought hit him. The rest of the Avengers add their approvals to the offer as Coulson looked to May to see what she thought. In the few moments that their eyes were locked together, it seemed like a whole full blown conversation was taking place as can only happen with people who have known each other for a long time. When Coulson turned back towards the others at the table, he said, “We accept. The others are going to explode when I tell them that we now work for Tony Stark. Especially Skye and FitzSimmons. You think I fanboy over Captain America, they might faint when they meet you. Not that your ego needs the bump.”

“Skye? That name seems familiar. J.A.R.V.I.S., do we have any info on a Skye?” asked Tony.

“Yes sir, a person with that name hack into part of my system and pointed out a flaw in my code. You sent them a bottle of champagne and a strongly worded warning not to hack in again.” answered the AI.

“Of course she did. Has she tried again after that?” asked Coulson.

“Only the agreed upon monthly hacking challenge we set up to keep up with current hacking procedures. It keeps her up on her skills in her words and helps me to be on the look out for outside interference. She hasn’t been in contact for a number of months that I am going to assume is when she was in your company.” answered J.A.R.V.I.S. 

“Well now I want to meet the person who could hack J.A.R.V.I.S.. They sound like they could be a lot of fun to get to know.” said Clint while Natasha nodded beside him, as they stood up to head out of the room with everyone else.

“Yes lets go meet Coulson’s team. I would like to meet this FitzSimmons person, I’ve read some of the reports from your missions and these FitzSimmons erson has a grasp o many different types of science. They must be a genius to be able come up with solutions on the fly out there.” said Bruce as they all walked toward the living room area of the common floors where Coulson and May had left their team.

“Actually we’re a couple of geniuses Dr. Banner.” answered a female British voice, followed by a male Scottish voice saying, “So that why we’re able to come up with solutions like that, we have twice the brain power to work with.”

“May I introduce Jemma Simmons and Leo Fitz. We call them FitzSimmons because they are always working together so its easier to just call them by that name. Though I can see how you would think they were one person from reports. They even sign their paperwork like that,” Coulson said as they all entered the living room area. “Jemma where is Skye? She should be here with you, I told you all to stay put.”

“She wandered into the kitchen. Did you know they have a whole cabinet full of poptarts? She stole a box and a glass of milk and when to watch tv saying since you locked away her laptop so she wouldn’t hack Tony Stark, she was going to use his cable.” answered Simmons, as she stared at the Avengers all walking into the room. “Excuse me, Dr. Banner and Mr Rogers, would you mind if I asked for some blood samples? I’d like to analyze your blood to see what makes you have your abilities.” She only stopped when Fitz touched her elbow snapping her out of going into her mind and blocking out the outside world. “Oh my, did I say that out loud?”

As Coulson face palmed, Tony said, “Oh my god, I love them. Pepper can we keep them? I promise to take care of them.”

As Pepper laughed, she said “I just wondering if you remember that you use a Starkpad to control the tv and isn’t that basically a small computer? I’m wondering if it’s safe to leave a hacker alone in the other room.”

Both Tony and Coulson took off toward the tv room with everyone else following closely, only to find Skye and Darcy watching Supernatural, eating poptarts and drinking Tony’s liquor. “Hey guys, I met this awesome chick just now. Can I keep her? I think she’s my new BFF, don’t tell Jane.” Darcy yelled when she noticed the crowd in the doorway.

“What’s up DC? Stark’s cable is awesome, he has everything. And if it’s not on here J.A.R.V.I.S. will find it. Please tell me we’re staying. Cause if we’re not, I’m going to hack into city records and make myself Tony Stark’s long lost daughter. No, I’m too old for that, I’ll say I’m his sister, yeah sister it is.” slurred out a very drunk Skye.

“I don’t know if I should adopt her or lock her in the Hulk room in the basement. Oh who I’m I kidding, I want to keep her too.” Tony said as they left the two young women in the other room.

“Well since Skye is intoxicated, how about we get to know Fitz and Simmons? We can show them around the labs and see what they think of a Tony Stark supplied lab.” said Bruce. 

“As fun as that sounds, I think me and Natasha are going to stay up here and talk to Phil and Melinda instead ok? We have a lot to catch up to do.” stated Clint as the afore mentioned people all agreed. 

Pepper said she was going to head back to the office and Thor said he was going to find Jane to tell her of Darcy’s new friend and everything else that happened (meaning he was going to go whine about Skye stealing some of his poptarts). Steve and Sam decided to head down to check in with Maria Hill to see if she had heard any info on Bucky after Coulson asked about him. That just left the four geniuses, two of which were seriously trying to not go full blown fanboy/girl, standing in front of the elevators, ready to tour the labs.

When they arrived at the labs, Tony and Bruce started to show the two younger scientists around. FitzSimmons quickly proved their intellegence and abiltiy to solve problems when they suggested a way to improve the deployment of the energy force field prototype that Tony and Bruce had been working on. They suggested a simplfied AI to flash the energy force field on and off to conserve power. They also suggested adding a second arc reactor to a suit to run a personal force field if needed. After that Tony wanted to see some of thier inventions. Fitz showedoff his Night-Night gun, to which Tony said “Cool name”, which made the younger mna beem since everyone else kept tell him the name sucked. Neither of them noticed Bruce and Jemma rolling their eyes at the exchange. When Tony asked them how they handled explostions since he regularly blow up his lab and FitzSimmons said they usually blow up half of what they worked on, Tony official stated that the Science Bros were adopting them as their Science Siblings. 

“Pepper is going to kill us you know that right?” Bruce asked as a joke later on as the four of them watched Tony’s robots run around trying to put out the fires and vent the smoke in the lab they had been working in, as FitzSimmons showed what they had learned about a sample of Extremis after Tony’s battle with A.I.M. 

“Well, now we know not to accidently spill coke on a sample. I’m just glad that we were on this side of the table when it fell off the table and mixed with the coke. Probably would of took off a leg.” answered Tony as he planed out how he wanted to rearrange the set up when they rebuilt this lab.

“Coulson is going to kill us.” Simmons said thinking they were going to get fired before the day was over. “We’re sorry for destroying your lab, Mr Stark. We hope it doesn’t set your work back too much while it’s rebuilt.” Fitz said to Tony and Bruce, as he wondered if they would be able to save any work.

“You don’t have to worry about us losing anything. J.A.R.V.I.S. records everything and we just move to another lab. Hell, Tony blows up a lab at least twice a month. So just relax and we’ll head back upstairs while we seal this one off to suck out the oxygen to kill the fires. The repair crews will have this lab stripped and started to rebuild by tomorrow morning, updated with Tony’s new specifications.” Bruce reassured FitzSimmons as they started waking towards elevators to rejoin everyone they left earlier.

When Bruce told J.A.R.V.I.S. to take them to meet back up with the other, they were surprised when he let them off on the training floor. They quickly found out why though when they saw the crowd of heros and agents watching Natasha and May spar on the mats marked off for the activity. The crowd of security agents were all watching with looks admiration mixed with fear, while Coulson and Hill stood over to the side watching while nodding and commenting on the two women’s techniques. Steve and Sam stood off to the side looking impressed by the match. Clint was sitting on top of a weight machine eating peanuts, flicking the shells at Coulson and Hill, cheering on Natasha to win.

As group from the elevator walked up on the fight, Steve said, “Good thing you guys got here when you did. They only have a couple minutes left before they have to stop. Phil’s orders.”

“Why is that? I thought you guys usually spar till one of you taps out.” asked Bruce.

“Yeah we usually do, but apparently the last time these two were allowed to spar till one tapped out, they both were almost dead from blood loss, had multiple broken bones, injured half a class of SHIELD recruits, destroyed two gyms and knocked out Barton and Coulson and were tranquilized by Fury to stop it. Till Natasha dumped it on the web it was a level 8 sealed incident. They considered it a draw and only fight in ten minute increments now to prevent it from happening again.” explained Steve as Bruce, FitzSimmons and Tony paled as they listened.

“J.A.R.V.I.S., remind me that I am not to piss off either Natasha Romanoff or Melinda May for fear of extreme bodily harm. Also reenforce entire training floor to prevent damage from extensive use.” Tony said, never taking his eyes off the two dangerous women pummeling each other in the ring.

“Wow we never thought that we’d ever see anyone who could match Agent May in a fight.” said Simmons as Fitz nodded in agreement.

“That’s how this whole thing started.” Clint said as he popped up beside them, scaring Tony in the process (which was the goal in the first place), “We went down to talk to Hill about what you proposed about the security organization, which she is good with saying it would be great to take care of some problem areas, when Natasha and May were recognized by many of the agents and they quietly started to argue who would win in a fight and that they didn’t look so tough, that they could take them in a fight. Of course they both heard and when they looked to Coulson he said they had ten minutes to fight then he’d tranquilize them both if they didn’t stop after that. Then he made everyone come up here to watch the fight. I’m pretty sure a couple of those agents have piss themselves. Oh, hey they’re done. See ya later” he said as he ended the conversation, tossing Bruce his bag of peanuts.

As the blond archer stepped on to the mat to check on the two women, Hill turned to the crowd of agents saying, “Anyone want to step in to the ring with agents May or Romanoff? No? Just remember this when you decide to dismiss information just because it doesn’t seem possible. Just remember that either one of this two women could kill you all with ease. Not one on one, all of you at once. They are just that good. So if I were you I would be careful about boasting that you could win in a fight. Also just a heads up, Agent Barton is very sneaky and will not hesitate to report such talk back to either one of this two just to watch you get your ass kicked.”

“You should also avoid saying you can shoot better than Agent Barton. You can’t. Period. We will not be responsible for him proving you wrong by pinning you to a wall with arrows, long distance shooting you with a paintball gun, sticking you with makeshift weapons made from office supplies and push pins. It should also go without saying that trying to start a prank war with him or any of the other Avengers or senior agents will only end with your embarrassment and bodily harm.” added Coulson while staring down the group of agents.

As Hill and Coulson walked over to the rest of the group after dismissing them, Sam asked “Why did you warn them not to start a prank war with Barton?”

“Because the last time someone started one with him, I ended up with a junior Agent duct taped to my door, several agents wearing polka dot uniforms and someone dyeing Fury’s eyepatch pink. It took us a month to coax the person responsible out from under a table in the psych ward after Fury got done with him. Problem is that I later found out Barton did it all and was able to blame it on the ones who started the whole thing. The only three things he gets serious about are Natasha, long distance shooting and pranks. Man is a fucking evil genius at getting even. That might be the only reason I would feel any kind of sorry for Loki if he ever came back. Clint would destroy him in payback.” answered Hill. Coulson just nodded in agreement when everyone looked at him for confirmation. 

“I think I’m starting to understand why Strike Team Delta was always in the field either together or separately. You were trying to keep them away from your other agents to protect said agents from writing checks with their mouths that their asses couldn’t cash. I read a lot of their mission reports to get to know them some, cause I couldn’t get the idea of the Barton I know from meeting him here at the tower with stories I had heard of Hawkeye to mesh and Romanoff is hard to read no matter what, which I can only guess very few people know the real her. I was trying to get an idea of why everyone is so in awe of them and no offense, why they were on the Avengers. I mean I figured they were here because they deserved it, I just wanted an idea of their skills. I think I might be slightly scared now.” babbled Sam as he took in the info they all just heard.

“Oh come on, you hang with Captain America, why would you be scared of us?” he heard from his left, just noticing Clint standing there, only to whip his head around when Natasha cracked her knuckles on his right. He hadn’t even seen them move from the mats, let alone move up beside him. When he looked for May, he saw her leaning on Coulson’s shoulder cleaning her nails with a knife he was sure she made come out of thin air.

“Alright quit teasing Falcon and lets all head up to the communal floors. We order some food and relax. I swear you guys are worse than children sometimes you know.” Steve said, breaking the tension the three agents were creating as the teased Sam. At the mention of food, everyone quickly headed toward the elevators. Tony had J.A.R.V.I.S. inform Pepper, Betty, Jane and Thor that they were ordering food and to tell J.A.R.V.I.S. what they would like so he could order it for them.

Soon everyone was enjoying takeout from just about every kind of food that could be delivered, wile sitting comfortable on couches, armchairs and the floor as they all visited and caught up with each other. As Pepper reached out to grab a container of moo goo gai pan, Coulson noticed her engagement ring.

“I see Tony finally wised up and proposed to you, Pepper.” he said drawing attention to the ring.

“Yes, Phil he finally pulled his head out of his ass and realized he couldn’t live with out me.” Pepper responded as she poked Tony in the side when he seemed to be about to make a smartass remark. When he looked at her in protest, she kissed him to keep his mouth shut, after which he whispered “only for you,” as he looked her in the eyes, meaning he’d be nice for her.

“We’re not the only one’s engaged here, Bruce and Betty are too. They are taking it slow as they get to know each other again.” relayed Pepper as she turned back to talking with Phil. “I know Thor keeps popping the question to Jane, but she wants to have him learn about earth a little more and each other too. I half except for Clint and Natasha to just pop up in the middle of the day saying they got married since they aren’t fooling anyone with just being ‘partners’.” Pepper added as she spoke to Coulson while trying to use the chopsticks on her food.

“They don’t need to get married, Clint and Natasha already are married.” said Coulson, causing Clint to spew a bite of pizza across the room in surprise as Natasha started to choke on her dumplings she was eating.

In the dead silence following Coulson’s bombshell, Clint quickly asked him, “What do you mean me and Natasha are married? Since when?”

“Yes I too would like to know that.” added in Natasha.

“About five years now, you had to go undercover as husband and wife in Budapest. I just made it official. You signed the marriage licence, Hill and I signed it as witnesses. Didn’t you wonder why I never asked for the rings back?”

“I kind of figured it was because I came back with an extra ten pounds of lead in my body and we had just fought off a entire Albanian mob to stay alive. As I was trying to not die, I didn’t really notice not giving back the rings.” answered Clint, reaching out for Natasha’s hand unconsciously.

“So that’s why you told me to keep the rings to use on future missions when we’d be acting as husband and wife isn’t? Were they even SHIELD issue or did you go out and buy them yourself?” asked Natasha, getting her answer when Coulson started to blush when she asked if he bought their rings. “I raise my glass to you for getting one over on us. Since he is моей сильной сторонником, I’m not angry that we are married. But no more surprises, ok?”

“Well since I’m married to my красивый паук, I guess I can’t be too angry. But now I got to five years of anniversaries to make up for. You suck Phil. Plus I didn’t get honeymoon sex. You deprived me of honeymoon sex man. You double suck.” Clint added after Natasha, earning him a smack in the back of the head and a kiss to make it better.

“So me calling you Blackhawk wasn’t all that off the mark then huh? You two are already hitched. And as to you missing out on honeymoon sex, from the repairs I’ve had to have done when you two first moved in here, I don’t think you have anything more to explore sexually. Frankly I’m scared you two have been having ninja sex in my tower anyways.” Tony inputted drawing laughs and a flick in the ear from Pepper.

“Afraid you won’t measure up? Maybe you need mechanical help to keep up, get Pepper to where she needs to go. Ever needed to suit up to finish the job huh?” Clint shot back, making Darcy exclaim “Oh Burn!”

When Tony turned to Pepper, giving her a look, she said, “No you are not bringing a Ironman suit into the bedroom, Tony. As for you, Cupid, Tony doesn’t have any problems getting the job done if you know what I mean. Just remember who is really in control here. Tony May control J.A.R.V.I.S. and this tower, but I control his sex life and I’m not afraid to wield that power to destroy you. Mess with me and I’ll have him weld your ass to the side of the tower.”

“And with the knockout, Ms Pepper Potts. Clint I think you might want to back away slowly and concede defeat. She might do what she said if you poke the dragon too hard.” said Darcy, as they all looked at Pepper in a new light.

Before anyone could say another word, they were interrupted by a loud thump on the window overlooking the city. When they looked outside on the balcony, they saw a broken, sparking crude robot laying on the ground. In the distance there was a faint glow from a group of similar robots headed their way.

“Missile proof glass?” asked Coulson.

“Hulk proof.” answered Tony. 

“It made me spill my beer. That’s it. I’m calling it. Avengers Assemble!” yelled Clint as he ran to get his bow. 

“Would your team care to join us Coulson?” asked Steve as they all headed to their floors to suit up.

“It would be our pleasure Captain.”


	9. Chapter 8

As the two teams returned to the Avengers tower the next morning, Tony was saying to Phil as he laid down a young asleep boy on a couch, “I mean I can understand HYDRA wanting to take over the world. They believe they can do better than we’ve been doing and thinking of some of the dumb shit that has happened in the past, I can’t say we all have the best track record. But what they were doing in that lab was just pure evil on a whole other level.”

“That is some of the things that we have been dealing with on some of our missions. That is why we can not let them get advantage anywhere and we must be ready at a moments notice to act. That is why I was glad when you offered me a position in your security organization. I believe that we can really get some real progress now that we have some solid support.” Phil said as the elevator stopped on the floors set aside for the new SHIELD that Tony had started.

“After what we saw in that lab, you have all the every bit of backing I can provide to help you do what needs what to be done. All you have to do is ask and its yours. If I can’t buy it, I’ll build it or get it. Any and everything.” Tony offered with every bit of conviction he had. 

“I saw a lot of things I never wanted to see in World War II, things never thought another human being would be capable of doing to another. But Tony’s right, what HYDRA was doing down there was evil. It just confirms my resolve to stop them.” added in Steve as he, Clint, Natasha, May and Sam followed them further in the floor. 

“Natasha and me both agree with Cap about the need to stop HYDRA. Phil as soon as you have a location to check out let us know. That has to never happen again or if happening, needs to be stopped as soon as possible.” Clint said as he paced the room, to agitated to sit still. Natasha was sitting in a chair at the end of the table radiating a aura of deadliness so dark that the only person beside Clint that would go near her was May, who had such a blank expression on her face that Phil, who knew her so well, was worried that she was about a hair’s breath from killing someone. Luckily the HYDRA agents that they had captured were safely locked away in cells several floors down.

“I’m just glad we were able to save as many as we did. That is what I’m going to focus on at the moment. That we did what we could to save them.” Sam said to the room, not talking to anyone particular, still trying to comprehend what the others saw in the past hours when they headed out the night before.

 

14 hours earlier

“Ok, Tony and Sam when you two get suited up, head out to scout out those robots. Get us some info so we can plan out how to proceed with the fight. Bruce you stay here unless we need you. I don’t want to bring in the Hulk unless it goes FUBAR out there. Clint, you head to the roof and make sure that we’re not being distracted and snuck up on from another direction. The rest of us will stand by until we have a better idea of what we’re dealing with.” Steve ordered as he arrived back on the communal floor after retrieving his suit. 

“Already in the air, Cap. I’m flying high and relaying data back to as we speak. Stark is approaching from the opposite direction and getting a little closer since he has armor, not just wings.” reported Sam as he flew above the group of robots. If he didn’t know better, it would almost seem like the robots looked like crude versions of the Avengers. 

“I’ve scanned the robots and except for some simple thrusters in their feet that makes them fly, I can’t find any reason that these robots should even be standing. From the scans J.A.R.V.I.S. has done from the suit, they shouldn’t be standing. Hell some of the parts aren’t even attached by anything at all.” Tony added as he hovered a hundred yards off from the line of strange robots. 

“Stay back for now. We’ll get FitzSimmons and Bruce to see if they see anything that you might have missed. Clint report in. Anything?” Steve asked. As Clint replied with an all clear, he tried to figure out why someone would attack them by throwing a robot at them like a missile and then stand down. 

Bruce and FitzSimmons quickly conferred with Tony and J.A.R.V.I.S., deciding that the group of robots were not posing any kind of danger. They came to the conclusion that they didn’t even have any kind of weaponry in them. 

“Steve how about Sam stays back to observe and I get close in to see what happens? Because right now all we’re doing is wasting time. I’m pretty sure I could blast these things apart in about ten seconds if they make any kind of aggressive move.” Tony said tired of just hovering I place. 

“Go ahead, but be careful. Be alert.” replied Steve, watching Tony move in through a pair of binoculars.

As Tony moved toward the group of robots hovering in place, the head of the middle one swivelled to watch his approach. When he was just out of arms reach, the outside robots on each end of the line started to shudder and fall apart. As Tony watched the scene unfold in front of him, the middle robot’s arms reached towards its own chest to pull a plate of steel off to reveal a small screen from an old black and white tv. The rest of the robots except the one with the tv screen in it, all collapsed to the roof they were hovering over. When the last robot was left alone, the screen lit up to show a small boy around age nine if Tony had to take a guess. “Hello? I hope this works. I have to be quick, before they come back. I’m hiding this in one of my bots hoping someone finds it. We need help. They have started to hurt us. I can hear the others screaming. Please help us. I think we are near water. I can smell fish. If its not to damaged, I have a homing signal that flashes when ever I can build up power and they don’t catch me. I hope this works. I hope we’re still alive when someone finds us. I’m hiding it in the strongest bot I built. I’ll try to not hurt anyone when they make me attack the Avengers. They want to see if my control has a limit. Please don’t let me kill anyone.” The video came to a halt with the boy crying in fright as he turned off the device.

“Ok, is anyone else getting a Star Wars vibes here?” asked Clint in the quiet after they all listened to the plea from the boy.

“Hawkeye I swear to God, I’m going to have Natasha kick you off the roof if you make one more bad joke.” yelled Steve.

“Ignore him Captain, Clint makes bad jokes to relieve tension when kids are involved. Just like Natasha gets all still, like she is now. They are so focused on helping to save the boy, that they are best left alone till you have a direction to point them. When you do, don’t get in their way. Last person that did lost a kidney and still limps.” Phil told Steve. “What we need to do is focus on finding where to find the boy and who else that needs to be rescued. Tony is there any clue to where the robots came from? Also why they fell apart?”

“There is a name on some of the parts. Cybertek? Does that sound familiar? I swear I know that name. Most of it looks like cast off parts, like the were mass produced and these were the rejects. They only thing that looks like any care was taken with it was the small hard drive and monitor that showed the video. I’m collecting them and returning to the tower. Sam I’ll meet you and everyone else in my lab.” Tony said as he headed back towards the tower with the hard drive and tv in his hands. Sam quickly flew towards his floor in the tower, landing on the extra large balcony Tony put in so Sam could take off from his rooms. As he dropped off his wings in the rack that kept them charged, the elevator opened to collect him for the trip to the labs.

Mean while Tony was arriving in his lab to find a very pissed Coulson explaining what they knew about Cybertek and a project Deathlok. He was not pleased to find them involved in this. Though the anger coming off of Coulson was nothing compared to the cold stoic rage pouring off of Natasha and May. If looks could kill, the entire tower would have been dust in a crater.

“Ok, I remember Cybertek now. Fuck, I thought you guys had destroyed the Deathlok project. You know what, never mind. Got to find the kid. J.A.R.V.I.S.! Lets start scanning this video, pick out keywords to give us a clue to find this facility. Steve, get everyone prepared to move once I figure out where we’re going. FitzSimmons, you guys start analyzing this hard drive. Try to figure out how it works with no power source. And someone get Bruce some tea STAT! He is looking green tinted and we really don’t need to have the Hulk visit at the moment.” Tony ordered, starting to search for sites of large power usage near bodies of water in a hundred mile radius. 

“Has anyone given thought that this might be exactly what whoever sent the message wants? That this might all be a trap? I mean I’m all for saving the kid and anyone else that needs saving, I just don’t want us rushing in with no plan,” Sam said as he stood to the side watching everyone rush around.

“Actually I have taken that into account Mr Wilson and was about to speak with the Captain about it. Also we’re not going to rush in guns blazing. What we will do is move fast to keep the element of surprise. Trust that Captain America and myself will have a plan of action ready when we arrive.” answered Coulson, turning to Sam as he and Steve started to discuss team assignments and strategies depending on what the would find.

“Sam, after dealing with Loki and HYDRA being inside SHIELD, trust me when I say that we now always try to look at situations from all angles. We just trust Steve and Coulson to have a plan in place for when we track down where we need to go. We are the Avengers remember? It took Steve all of twenty seconds to come up with the plan he used in the Battle of New York. He saw who he had to work with and what they needed to do. We plan and adjust as needed. Just be ready when we head out. We’ll be moving fast.” explained Clint as he dropped down from a vent in the ceiling, landing in a near by chair. 

Before he could even ask, Tony was pointing to a case on the wall that held new arrows that he had been working on for Clint. “You can use any that you want, except the second to last ones. They are a new prototype explosive arrow, that has a compound that explodes on contact with air. Only problem is that I haven’t figured out a good design for the arrow head. Keeps cracking when rom the vibration of being shot from a bow. Pepper was not happy about the floor I destroyed testing those.” Tony said not even looking up from the search he was doing, missing the wide eye look everyone gave him and the smile on Clint’s face as he thought about having arrows like that. Tony then turned his head towards the table Steve and Coulson were standing at making tentative plans, he asked with a grin, “Hey, talking about destroying stuff, Phil remember the gun you shot Loki with? You want it back?”

“You have the Destroyer gun? How did you accomplish that? And yes I would very much like to have that gun.” answered Coulson.

“Might have stole it to put in the we kicked Loki’s ass memorial. Also I thought that it was too powerful for SHIELD to have. Kind of glad I did to with HYDRA and all. The floor that the Hulk smashed Loki into is there too. Embarrasses the hell out of Bruce that I keep it.” answered Tony, as he typed in a string of commands to have the gun brought out of the vault he kept it in.

“Hey don’t lie. You were trying to figure out how to add the fire power to a suit. I know. I was there when we blew the side of the building out.” yelled Bruce as he laughed at the memory of the look on Tony’s face when the gun went off accidently. Even the Hulk laughed in his mind at the dumbfounded look he had.

Before Tony could retort, J.A.R.V.I.S. interrupted saying, “Sir, I’m sorry to intrude, but I believe I have found a ninety-five percent probable match to the criteria you inputted for your search. I have already pulled up the blueprints for the building and recent satellite photos. They should be on the table screens now.”

“Thanks J. Ok team we have a location, lets get suited up and meet on the landing pad on the roof. FitzSimmons, if you figure out anymore info, call us. Steve, what’s the plan?” said Tony.

“Let me and Coulson study the blueprints and photos while you all prepare. We’ll explain it on the Quinjet.” stated Steve.

At that everyone rushed out to suit up in Tony’s case and grab last minute equipment in everyone else’s. They all met on the landing pad on the roof, heading up the ramp to find seats in the interior of the Quinjet as Clint and May headed for the cockpit. 

“Ok after looking over the info we have, the plan is to have Tony and Sam take off from the rear of the jet to get a scan of the area. Sam will take Clint to a near by roof top to observe guard positions. Once he has done that, after we land, Natasha and May will be sent in to infiltrate, subdue and gather information. Once we have a better idea of what we’re dealing with we decide what how to proceed. Any questions?” explained Coulson as everyone turned to hear the plan he and Steve came up with.

“Are we allowed to use lethal force?” asked Natasha, as she honed a knife.

“Only if you feel there no other option. If it turns out to be HYDRA and the choice is between you getting hurt to subdue and put the put the other person down permanently, don’t hesitate to do what you need to.” said Steve, know that some HYDRA agents belief in it bordered on zealotry.

“Five minutes out!” yelled Clint as they came within sight of the seemly rundown warehouse just outside the city just off the water of the Hudson River. 

“Alright, Clint turn over control to May and get ready to head down. Tony go ahead and take off. Give us a quarter mile perimeter scan before you head towards the warehouse. Sam, you drop off Hawkeye on which ever rooftop he wants to set up on and then start a fly over of the area, helping him to spot guards and defenses. Clear?” ordered Steve.

“As a bell, Cap. See you all at a later date.” said Tony as he dropped out the rear door of the plane. 

Clint and Sam just nodded as they took off, leaving the rest of the team to wait as May found them a safe landing spot to stage the mission from. After landing, waiting for the incoming information from Tony and Sam, Coulson and May were surprised to get a call from Skye who they had left past out with Darcy in the media room after they had got into Tony’s liquor.

“Hey DC. Heard you guys went on a mission with Avengers. Totally jealous right now. Anyway I talked to FitzSimmons about the hard drive they have here. I hope Mr Stark doesn’t mind, I stole a Starkpad he had laying around, J.A.R.V.I.S. said it was cool. Woo, head rush. Still a little drunk. Uh, yeah, I hacked into the drive and got some info off of it. It looks like it was a drive that they replaced when there was an accident. Some there was some data that they missed. I think they are experimenting on people there, some with abilities. I also found references to Centipede and Deathlok. The rest is unrecoverable. Sorry, I couldn’t get more.”

“That’s more than we had before. Skye do you think you can hack into the facility for us? See what they are doing now? Take down security for us?” asked Coulson as they quickly read through the data sent by Skye. 

“Ah, its cute that you even think you have to ask. I’m already in, just waiting for your signal. By the way, some hot dude with a metal arm, stole a car out of the garage a few minutes ago. J.A.R.V.I.S. said he left a message for Captain America. His eyes only. I was going to call the police, but J.A.R.V.I.S. said he was a friend. I wish I was friendly enough with Tony Stark to be able to take one of his cars. That would be awesome.” gushed Skye, as they clearly heard Tony laugh his ass off, while Coulson face palmed. Steve was excited that Bucky had made an appearance, but the mission came first.

“Ok, go ahead and take it down Agent Skye. Hawkeye, Falcon. You have the guards and defenses identified? Ironman, how about you? Any surprises we should be worried about?” asked Steve, ready to move forward with the mission.

“All guards accounted for” reported Clint.

“They blend in pretty well, but I got two sniper nests and what looks like a heavy duty machine big enough to take out a tank.” added in Sam.

“I got hidden escape tunnels that I found with inferred scans. Also got ATVs hidden near each location for quick getaways. I’m going to start disabling them. Call if you need me.” Tony said in response.

“Alright, copy that Tony. Keep us informed on your progress.” Steve said over the coms. Turning to Natasha and May, he said, “You ladies ready to head in? Get in, find us some info, and see if you can get a clear picture on what is going on in there.”

The two deadly women just nodded and disappeared into the night. “Ok, Falcon can you take out the machine gun?” asked Clint. 

“Yeah, they are watch the ground, not the sky. Why?” asked Sam.

“When you hear a whistle over the coms, hit that gun with all you got ok? I’ll take out the snipers. Then we start clearing out guard positions as quietly as possible while Black Widow and Agent May head inside. Sound good to you Cap?” supplied Clint, as he drew a bead on the farthest sniper.

“As good as anything we could come up with. Go with it. Bruce will stay on the jet as back up in case we need him. Thor, Coulson and myself will be waiting for the word to come knocking when Black Widow and Agent May report in.”

When Natasha and May were ready to make it inside, she gave a short low whistle over the coms, just like she and Clint had done in the past to signal each other. As soon as the last note died, Clint was releasing an arrow and drawing a new one before the other had even reached its mark. The man stationed in the machine gun nest barely even registered that the two snipers were down when a large winged figure dropped down on his shoulders. He didn’t even get a grunt out before Sam knocked him cold and restrained him. Less than twenty seconds and all of the above ground observation positions were taken out. As Sam went to drop down to the ground to land near another guard, a blunt arrow struck behind him, making him turn around in time to see a replacement guard arrive at the top of the ladder of the roof. Sam yanked the guy up off the ladder as he drove a fist into the guy’s temple knocking him out. He quickly restrained the extra guard and prepared to drop to the ground to help Clint take out the other guards. In under ten minutes, Sam and Clint had reported that they had the remaining guards taken out, having Steve, Coulson, and Thor join them in preparing to breach the building.

As they five men met up, Natasha reported in, “Steve we have found a security room and downloaded an up to date blueprint of the building. There are at least ten floors underground that were not on the original ones. Send in Clint to sneak further into the building through the ventilation system. Leave Sam outside so we don’t get surprised. Give us a five minute lead and then come in hard. While you, Coulson and Thor distract them, we will slip by and try to find if there is anyone besides guards here.”

“Sounds like we’re making this up as we go. But I can’t come up with a better plan, so we’ll roll with it.” replied Steve as he signaled for everyone to do as Natasha said.

“Yeah, well we’re having to fake it till we make it until we find out a little more about this place. Besides Natasha and I have done hundreds of missions with less info then this. We’re fine.” Clint informed him as he found a vent to crawl into, disappearing from sight.

Steve just shook his head when Coulson backed up Clint’s comment as they waited the five minutes to breach. As soon as exactly five minutes had passed, Steve nodded to Coulson, who hefted the Destroyer gun and blew a hole they could have drove a car through. As they ran into the building, Coulson said, “I think calling it the Destroyer gun is too much of a mouthful. I think I’m just going to call it the BFG.”

“BFG? What that stand for? Asked Steve, as hey heard Clint whisper “cool name”.

“Come on Cap, BFG? Big Fucking Gun?” Tony piped in, as he landed at the last escape hatch, welding it closed and disabled the ATVs.

After that they were to busy to talk as they fought the flood of guards who it turns out were working for HYDRA. As Steve and Thor decimated the ranks of guards, Coulson passed on the information of it being a HYDRA base. That bit of info just redoubled the other threes resolve to bring the base down. Natasha quickly found a server room a couple floors down and started downloading as much information as she could. On the next floor, May found where they were building the tech for the restarted Deathlok projects. She also found stores of the Centipede stimulant, labeled with many different varieties. It looked like HYDRA had kept the program going even after they had stopped it before. But the most shocking discovery was made by Clint as he drooped out of a vent five floors down into an observation room. In the next room a team of doctors were removing a teenagers arm just above the elbow as he screamed for them to stop. As he watched, one of the doctors lifted the teen’s arm away as another one placed what looked like a canister near the stump. It exploded into motion as it cauterized the stump and attached itself as it unfolded in to a metal prostatic forearm and hand. As they prepared to start on his other arm, Clint blew out the window quickly killing all but one of the doctors, which he pinned to the wall through shoulder. 

“I’m five levels down. I just found a group of doctors hacking the arm off a teenager and replacing it with some weird metal arm. When they looked to start on his other one, I burst in the room and killed all but one. You might want to get down here before I skin this guy alive or Natasha gets here. If she gets here first, I’m not stopping what she does to this guy.” told the rest of the team as he stared the man in the eye.

“Oh shit. Thor, light these guys up and get to Hawkeye first. We need that guy alive to get some info. We’ll be right behind you. If the Black Widow get there first, she will carve him to pieces.” yelled Coulson as they were just bout done with the on site guards.

“Drop to the floor son of Coul, I shall end this fight right now.” Thor boomed out as he gathered a heavy charge in his hammer, then releasing it into the remaining guards who dropped to the floor unconscious. He then took off, flying through the hallways and stairs to reach the operating room Clint was in.

He reached the room just before Natasha and May arrived. He quickly stood guard over the man as Natasha and May stared death glares at the man. He was very grateful that Steve and Coulson arrived as soon as they did. When he stepped away to let Steve question the doctor, he saw Clint trying to talk to the teenage that was being operating on. The boy was just staring at the metal hand horrified at what he was seeing, asking why they were doing this to him. When Thor said he didn’t know, it snapped the kid out of his shock, making him realize that some of the Avengers were in the same room as him. Clint and Thor quickly found out that there were many more kids and adults in the lower levels. Some were homeless, runaways or someone just unlucky enough to cross paths with a HYDRA collection team. Some the subjects were experimented on and others were studied because they had abilities. He didn’t know much more besides that as today was the first time he had been out of the cell they had been keeping in weeks.

While Clint and Thor got that info, Coulson was interrogating the doctor Clint had pinned to the wall. The doctor quickly started to spill his guts after Coulson told him he would give him to the Black Widow if he didn’t answer his questions. They learned that HYDRA was trying to build a cyborg army out of what they considered the undesirable element of the population. They had recently discovered that if they bonded the Deathlok prostatic on older teenagers around fourteen to sixteen, they were able to adapt to them easier and more fully. So they were snatching street kids as fast as they could. They also were try to figure out how to share some of the abilities that they had found in some of the subjects. Coulson knocked the guy out to shut him up as he started babbling out of pain and fear. They quickly decided that Thor would stay with the boy to keep him safe and to guard anyone else they rescued and sent his way. Thor stated that no further harm would come to any they rescued from here on out while under his protection.

Leaving Thor and the traumatized teen behind, the rest of the team started to search the rest of the floor level finding only other empty operating rooms. They also found a room at the end of a hallway leading to the next stairwell that at first glance seemed to be a large janitor closet with several garbage bags. That was discovered to not be true when Steve accidently knock a bag over while doing a quick search. Inside the open bag it was found to contain freshly severed limbs from multiple persons. As the rest of the group reacted to this discovery, May checked the garbage chute only to realize that it lead to an incinerator instead.

“Jesus Fucking Christ! Just how many people have they done this to? It look like they don’t care who they do this to, just that the person is alive and able to live through the process. Hell when I found them cutting up that kid, they weren’t even sedating him or giving him anything for the pain. Just hacking off a limb and attaching that device. We have to stop them. Nobody deserves this.” stated Clint as he took in what they had found.

“I thought I had seen the worst that could be done to people, children especially, when I was part of the Red Room. They broke us, shaped us, made us kill, but they didn’t just hack us apart like we were just spare parts to be put back together. This is evil at its most basic level. Clint is right these monsters need to be stopped.” added in Natasha.

After sharing a glance with May, Coulson said, “We have some info that will not make this any easier. We have encountered this type of thing before, just not on this scale. If the process stays true to form, most of the people this has been done to are beyond help now. They will have been lobotomized and be basically nothing more that living weapons. They will be dangerous to confront and will not be swayed when fighting. We will have to seriously injure or kill them to stop them. I’m just wanting to prepare you for what to except to what we might find.” 

Steve looked at everyone, with a heavy heart for what he was about to say, “As much as I pains me to say this, do whatever it takes to save who you can and protect them and yourselves. We do what we have to get this job done and shut this place down. Tony, do you copy?”

“Yeah Steve, I copy. I heard what Phil said and as much as I don’t want to, I agree with what you said. I’m just one floor up from you. I’ll be with you shortly.” answered Tony as he sped through the floors of the underground complex.

When Tony joined them at the door to the stairwell, Steve handed out their roles, “Coulson and Tony would engage any hostile forces they encountered while Clint and I provided cover for Natasha and May as they search for and lead out any prisoners they found. Once we’ve had clear out the complex, they would see about destroying it so that it couldn’t ever be used again.”

With firm nods in agreement, they rushed to the next floor ready to end this nightmare of a mission. On the next floor they found it fill of operating rooms too, with none in use thankfully. Reaching another stairwell, Steve ripped the door off its hinges in the rush only to find a very surprised scientist reaching for the doorknob standing there. Coulson quickly grabbed the man and pinched a nerve in his neck to cause him to pass out. Passing him to May, who quickly restrained him and set him in a nearby room, Coulson motioned that they should proceed on. As soon as they entered the next floor, they were attacked by some of the cyborgs that were being created in this place. Steve called out for them to stand down, but they started firing and had to be put down with force. Tony and Coulson try to do it with as little suffering as they could. Steve started to rip doors off so they could be quickly checked the two women while Clint covered anyone they sent back up the stairs. They quickly covered the entire floor and proceeded to the next floor.

Once they reached the next floor they had Clint and Tony switch place so that they could search twice as fast by sending Steve and May down one side of the hallway and Tony and Natasha down the other. As they worked their way down the level, they started to have some of the altered subjects surrender to them as they hadn’t had their will taken away from them. Some of them showed the team where other were being kept and where some of the people were being experimented on and altered to follow commands. They also weren’t taking many prisoners as most of the remaining guards and scientists were true believers in HYDRA and would rather die than betray it.

Once they cleared that floor, they headed to the next to last to find it was the holding area for all the people they hadn’t got too yet but were still holding. Tony and Steve ripped cell doors off and directed everyone to hurry up the stairs where they could escape to the outside. Once they had released the last of the prisoners, Tony realized that they hadn’t ever found the young boy that had sent the message. When he asked some of the people waiting to head up the stairs about the boy, he was informed that the boy had been kept separate fro the other because the scientists had said he was special and important. When he asked where the boy was at, he was told that the boy was on the last level. It was also where the bulk of the cyborg soldiers were housed. When Steve asked about the soldiers, they found out that they had been building them for years and store them in suspended animation. It was just recently that they had ramped up the making of them.

“I’m not leaving without rescuing the kid. He’s the one that brought this place to our attention. We got to get him.” stated Tony after learning about what was in the last level.

“I’m not disagreeing with you. We just are going to have to be careful. We don’t want to wake up the army under us or fight it. OK?” said Steve. “We don’t need everyone, so how about Phil, May, and Natasha finish escorting the people we rescued back up to the surface. Me , Tony and Clint will sneak in down below and get the boy and catch up with you.”

At everyone’s agreement, they split up and headed their separate ways. The Tony lead them toward the finally stairwell and down. When they got to the finally door, it was to find a much more heavy duty reenforced bunker style door with a very elaborate security system in place. Instead of taking the time to hack it, Tony simply cut the door out of the wall with his laser and pushed it over. When he looked back at Steve’s stunned face and Clint laughing, he said “You can have the best door in world, it’s only as good as the wall its in. They put that door in a plaster wall. Hell you could of done the same thing with brute strength, Steve.”

As Steve shook his head, they headed in to the underground storage level. They found hundreds of pods with people that had varying amounts of cybernetic replacement. All the pods had lines hooked up to them that ran towards a cental room in the middle of them all. When they got to the room, they discovered the boy who had sent the message in the robots earlier that night. Tony enter the room in a rush and was about to grab the kid when J.A.R.V.I.S. warned him, “Sir, you can’t pick up the boy just yet. He seems to be hooked in the processes that are keeping the pods outside the room from stopping. I am unclear if the would just stop or release an army of cyborg soldiers bent on killing the persons they first saw.”

Before Tony could answer, they heard a voice that they had only heard on a video, “When you unhook me from the machine, it will trigger a failsafe to release the soldiers kept in the pods. They are there to keep me here and from anyone from taking me. The scientists don’t want to lose me.” Tony quickly realized that the boy had been able to hear J.A.R.V.I.S. even though he had been speaking in the Ironman helmet.

“How were you able to hear J.A.R.V.I.S. just now?” Tony asked, surprising the other two men. 

“I am a mutant. I have the able to ‘talk’ to electronic devices and control them to extent if they aren’t very complicated. Your suit I can hear, but not control. That’s why I’m down here. I wouldn’t do what they wanted, so they isolated me to punish me. They also wanted my ability to develop more so it I could control more complex machines. All the soldiers down here are technically dead with their minds replaced by machines. The only way I was supposed to leave was by unlocking myself from the machine, controlling all the pods and opening the complex door. I think they figured by that time I would be overcome with power I controlled or they would have figured a way to control me by that time.” stated the boy, sounding a lot like Spock from the old Star Trek show to Clint’s ears.

“What’s your name son?” asked Steve. 

“The only name I can remember being called was Tinker. I think it was a nickname. I like it though. And before you ask why I talk this way, I spend a lot of time talking to machine. They don’t have a lot of variety to them. I get asked that question a lot, so I thought I would answer it now.” replied Tinker.

“Ok, kick ass name kid. But how about we move this along and get out of here before the creepy cyclons wake up and try to kill us? I would like to get out of here soon before the night goes FUBAR. For all we know HYDRA could be headed this way and I would rather not be here if that happens.” Clint said, as he thought about missions that had gone wrong at the last minute.

Tony turned to Tinker as he said, “Yeah, lets do that and then we can figure out how to destroy this place. Ok Tinker, how hard is it to unhook you from this machine? And how long do we have before the pods open and we have them after us?” 

“Unhooking me is easy. All I have to do is think it and the machine will release me. As for the pods, about thirty seconds and they are fully awake and moving. Then they will do everything in their power to kill us. Any ideas?” answered Tinker.

“If I May, I believe I can loop the information that says Tinker is connected to the machine to give you a longer time to get away from the pods. I can keep it up till the Ironman suit is out of range of the floor the machine is on.” interjected J.A.R.V.I.S.

“That all well and good, but how will we deal with the army of cyborgs charging after us when the signal fades? We’re all exhausted and beat up. We are not ready for another fight.” asked Steve as he tried to come up with a plan to deal with the situation.

“You could slow them down with the arrows Mr Barton is carrying. He has the experimental explosive ones that Sir had labeled not ready for use. As to dealing with the army of cyborgs, Mr Wilson and Dr. Banner say they have a plan to deal with them and destroy the building.” J.A.R.V.I.S. answered.

“You know I love that you don’t listen when I tell you stuff is too dangerous and it saves our asses. Give me the arrows and you two take Tinker and start running for the surface. And before you protest that we do this together, let me tell you that the explosives in these arrows is very powerful and I’m not sure I’ll be able to survive with my suit. So tell me when you are close to the surface so I can set them off. When they go off I’m going to flying through here at the fastest speed I can maintain and maneuver. J.A.R.V.I.S. tell Sam and Bruce to enact their plan as soon as I clear the building.” Tony said as he and J.A.R.V.I.S. hacked into the machine Tinker was hooked up to and released the boy. He quickly shove the boy into Steve’s arms and told them to hurry. As Clint and Steve started up the stairs, Tony started planting the arrows carefully around the base of the stairs and leading up. His plan was to collapse them and buy himself time to get out of the underground complex. After about fifteen minutes Steve reported that they were just one floor from the surface. Tony pull a mini missile out of his suit and set it to go off went the signal was lost to the machine to the pods. Then he took off and raced to keep ahead of the upcoming explosion. When he was six levels up from the bottom level, the complex was rocked by a huge tremor as the bomb went off. Tony kicked the thruster on even harder to out race the fireball and shockwave chasing him.

As he exited the building, he yelled now across the coms. He turned to watch what the plan was for the buildings destruction, only to see Sam come barreling out of the sky as he flung a undressed Banner at the building. As Bruce approached the building, his yell started to turn into a Hulk roar. When he hit the roof, they could hear him crash through several floors.

When Tony landed, he asked about the releasing of the Hulk. He quickly found out that Bruce had been check out all the prisoners to make sure they were ok. The more Bruce talked to them, the angrier both he and the Hulk got on the prisoners behalf. Bruce and the Hulk then asked to be the ones to destroy the building. Bruce said the Hulk promised to leave nothing but a crater.

All the prisoners and Avengers stood in awe as the building collapsed in on itself and sank further and further in to the ground. While that was happening, Tony had J.A.R.V.I.S. see to having some way of transporting all the people they rescued and the proper authorities to deal with the helping them. With in a half an hour they had FBI, NSA, DHS, and many other alphabet agencies on site to take over. J.A.R.V.I.S. also to contact Dr. Charles Xavier to pick up Tinker. 

They got all the people that were rescued on to buses to be transported to be debriefed on what had happened to them in the labs. The team was questioned on the things they saw since the Hulk was demolishing the complex with a righteous Fury. When they were asked to stop the Hulk from destroying anymore so that the NSA and others could collect samples and evidence, Steve told them, “With all due respect, what makes you think we could stop him if we wanted to? Plus after what we saw in there, we wouldn’t even I if we could. It all needs to be destroyed till there is nothing able to be saved. But if you are so gung ho to try to stop him, just remember to stay out of his reach. He tends to swat puny humans.”

After the wide eyed and clearly frightened government agents retreated, the rest of the team cracked up in laughter. Steve only shrugged as he said, “I’m too tired to deal with them and plus it the truth.” which only made everyone laugh even harder.

“I couldn’t have dealt with them any better myself. Glad to know I’m rubbing off on you Spangles.” choked out Tony as soon as he could speak.

Before Steve could reply, the night was broken by a gun shot from the direction of the crater in the ground. They all spun to face the new threat in time to see a large green hand snatch the broken looking cyborg off the edge of the hole it had crawl out of. As they watched, they heard a metal tearing sound before the Hulk came stomping out of the crater towards them. He quickly move past the rest of the team and when Steve asked where he was going, the Hulk grunt out “Pants for little Bruce.” Clint fell off the seat he was on in response.

Once Bruce rejoined them buttoning up his shirt, they decided to board the Quinjet and head home. Clint headed for the cockpit giggling about pants, which Tony explained to Bruce since he didn’t get the joke. The flight back home was uneventful and everyone was glad to be back home. Thor quickly went to check on Jane and to let her know what had happened. Bruce headed for his floor to shower and sleep as turning into the Hulk was exhausting. Everyone else headed for the newly named SHIELD floors.

 

The Present

“Focusing on the ones we saved does make it easier to handle. Still we have to push through and be ready to deal with something like that happening again. Because HYDRA will not stop until we destroy it all the way to the last person.” advised Coulson, looking around the group.

As everyone present absorbed Coulson’s words, J.A.R.V.I.S. informed them that a Mr Howlett and a Mr Wagner were her to collect Tinker. Tony told him to send them up as he went to wake the boy up off the couch they had put him on to sleep when the arrived earlier. The elevator arrived as the young boy blinked his eyes to wake up, a short hairy man with the largest set of sideburns any of them had seen stepped off the elevator followed by a blue man that could only be described as looking like a classic representation of a demon.

The blue man rapidly stepped up to Phil, holding out a hand to shake, as he said, “A pleasure to meet you, I am Kurt Wagner. I understand that you have found a young mutant that needs a new home.”

Phil reached out to shake without any hesitation as he replied, “Yes, the young man over on the couch there. We found him earlier tonight being held in a HYDRA base where they were trying to exploit his ability. As I understand it, he ‘talks’ to electronics. That is all we know at this point.”

“Ah very interesting. I think he would very much like to meet Forge. He is always building new machines.” Kurt said as he looked at the young man in question. He then looked at the rest of the people in the room who weren’t even blinking a eye at his appearance. “I have to say to is refreshing to meet people that aren’t put off by my appearance. It is a rare treat.”

“We live with a man that turns into a giant green rage monster, a ninety year old super soldier, a god, two assassins and myself that builds suits of armor. We have fought an alien invasion together, separately fought people who spewed fire and exploded, evil space elves, and destroyed a world wide law enforcement and spy organization to defeat an evil one that had infiltrated it. Meeting a blue devil looking guy is just a regular Monday for us.” Tony said from the couch beside Tinker.

Kurt laughed at Tony’s explanation and asked if it would be alright to come back for a visit, to which Tony said anytime he wanted. At that point the other man that came with Kurt said, “If you’re done making nice elf, some of us would like to make it home sometime to day. I’ve yet to piss off Scott and ya know like to do it at least once a day to keep him on his toes. Besides I don’t know why Chuck sent me with you, you could have very easily got the kid yourself. He had to know that the Avengers would care about how you looked.”

Before Kurt could answer the man, Steve shot to his feet to get a better look at the man who just spoke. He stepped away from the table as he said, “Jimmy? Is that you? Its me Steve Rogers. How are you still alive? Did they experiment on you too, give you the serum too?”

As the man stared at Steve, Kurt said “This is Logan, maybe better known as Wolverine. Logan, I do believe I now know why the Professor had you come today. It seems that Captain America has some insight in to your past.”

“Yeah, Chuck is always a sneaky bastard like that. Captain I’m going to tell you now that I don’t remember my past all that much. And to answer your question, no I wasn’t given the super soldier serum, that I’m sure of. I’m a mutant with an accelerated healing factor, so that how I’m still alive. My body is always healing, so I’m basically immortal. But let me ask you something, if you knew me was there any thing that was unusual about me that you could tell whether you really knew me back then?” Logan grumbled at first before turning to talk to Steve.

“You were like a wild animal in a fight, you smoked really cheap cigars, could drink anyone under the table, oh you had these really wicked bone claws, that would shoot out of the back of your hands, and as one unfortunate Nazis soldier found out, no one should ever kick you in the balls. There was not enough of him to identify.” recounted Steve, looking Logan in the eye.

As Kurt started laughing at Steve’s comment of Logan getting kicked in the balls, Logan lifted his hand up and shot his metal claws out of his hand before saying, “So I’ve always had the claws huh? The rest of that sounds a lot like me. Ok if I was with you in WWII, what is my name?”

“When I knew you, you were Sergeant James Howlett. You were part of the Howling Commandos with me, Bucky, Dum Dum and the rest. I think I even have a picture of all us together in my trunk in my room.” answered Steve.

“Kurt tell the professor I’m going to stay for awhile to find out some of my past. Also tell him im going to skewer his bald ass one of these days for being a manipulative bastard and thanks for being one at the same time.” Logan said, deciding that he wanted to find out what else the Captain had to say about his past.

“Yes my hairy friend, I will let him know. Now I think it is time to get the young man I came here for back to the Institute so we can get him settled in.” Kurt said as he walked over to pick up Tinker off the couch.

“It was nice to meet you. Do you need a ride to the airport or did you drive down from Westchester?” Phil said. 

“Neither.” Kurt said before disappearing in a flash of blue smoke and a smell of brimstone.

As everyone stared at the spot Kurt had disappeared from, Tony said, “Ok, I take it back. Not a typical Monday.”


	10. Chapter 9

After the mission to rescue the survivors of the HYDRA cyborg lab, it wasn’t later in the that Steve was reminded that Bucky had left him a message after stealing a Stark Industries SUV. In his defense, he had just met another living member of the Howling Commandos in the form of Logan Howlett, better known as Wolverine. After Logan’s friend Kurt disappeared right in front of them, Steve offered to get some of the things he had about Logan and the rest of the Commandos, while the rest of the team all headed their separate ways to their own floors. Coulson, May and Maria stayed behind to start hashing out the details of rapidly getting the new version of SHIELD up and running to their standards. They all felt that it was more than time for them to take the fight to HYDRA and the rest of problems that were too small for the Avengers to take care of. By mutual agreement, they decided that they would be less spy organization and more of a security enforcement organization and Coulson and Maria were more than ready to put boots to asses and heels on necks.

When Steve came back to escort Logan up to the communal floors so that they could talk, he found Logan talking to Coulson about maybe working with them on some missions if they thought he would be needed. They all quickly found out that Logan really did not like human experimentation, especially if it was involuntary. Coulson said he would call if they needed Logan’s special touch on a mission, adding that if they did call all he asked is that he at least keep one person in talking condition afterwards. Logan said that depended on what was found n the labs, cause in his words ‘some folks just don’t deserve to keep breathing.’

After shaking Coulson’s hand, Logan joined Steve on the elevator and headed to the communal floors. When they arrived they sat at one end of the giant dining table Tony had put in since Steve tried to make the team sit down to eat together sometimes. When he asked if Logan wanted a drink, he was surprised when Logan asked if they had any beer since he figured that since he had a accelerated healing factor, that Logan couldn’t get drunk. When he asked about that after handing a bottle of Clint’s beer to Logan, Logan told Steve that he could get drunk, it just took large amounts of pure alcohol. The reason he drank beer was that he liked the taste, that he liked the wide variety of different beers and flavors. Logan told him that he would take him to a micro-brewery so Steve could try some different types and see if he could find one he liked. Steve agreed, figuring even if he ended up not liking any, at least it would be a good way to get to know his old friend after all this time.

They had been sitting at the table for awhile looking through everything that Steve had that mentioned Logan from back in WWII as James Howlett, when Steve asked how Logan’s claws had been covered in metal. Logan was explaining how he had adamantium bonded to his entire skeleton while having one of his claws extended when they heard from behind them, “Uh, I know I drank a shit ton last night, but I’m pretty sure there was not a guy with a fucking sword sticking out of his hand here when I passed out last night. I’m sure I would have remembered that.” When Steve looked over Logan’s shoulder to see who was in the room with them, he saw a hungover Darcy leaning on the doorframe. 

Before Steve could say anything, Logan turned and shot all six of his claws out to try and spook the girl. Darcy just cocked one eyebrow up and said, “Ok, in that case, if you’re still here for Thanksgiving, you are so in charge of craving the turkey. Now I’m going to go shower and see if Pepper is mad at me for drunk dialing her last night while the Avengers were gone. Man I am glad it is the weekend, I could not handle trying to herd scientists today.”, walking past the two men towards the elevator.

Logan turned back to Steve, pulling his claws back in as he did, and just raised a eyebrow of his own. Steve answered, “That was Darcy, Dr. Foster’s assistant. She is unofficially the one in charge of getting Tony, Bruce, Jane and the others out of the labs to eat and sleep once and awhile. She is firecracker. She says whatever is on her mind. As to her reaction to you just now, I think she just writes it off to the fact she lives with the Avengers and weird shit happens. At least that what she said once when someone asked how she dealt living here.”

“Yeah well usually when I pop all six of my claws out at someone, they usually start praying to god or just piss themselves. Not tell me I’m in charge of turkey duty for Thanksgiving. I wasn’t too sure about this place, but I’m starting to think about staying for awhile. Sounds like it could be fun.” replied Logan. “Also I probably should tell you I have heightened senses, so I can tell Hawkeye is in the vent above us and Black Widow is around the corner listening to us. I can smell him and though she is very good at moving silently, I can still scent her and hear the whisper of her breathe.”

Natasha stepped from around the corner and walked towards Steve and Logan, with a blank expression on her face giving nothing of what she was thinking away. Meanwhile Clint dropped out of the ceiling vent, landing next to Steve’s shoulder. The two assassins moved to each other’s sides presenting a united front. Steve looked at them questionably, silently asking what they were doing.

“Aw don’t look at us like that, Cap. We were just watching out for your trusting ass. No offense to Wolverine here, but he has a massive file filled with brutal kills. The man is a walking killing machine. Even with the super soldier serum in you, he could probably kill you with enough effort. Plus he doesn’t remember your shared history. Forgive us for trying to keep you alive.”  
Clint blurted out, breaking in under ten seconds, while Natasha facepalmed since they were supposed to be trained to resist torture. One puppy dog look from Captain America, and Clint breaks like an egg dropped on the floor. She was so punishing him when they got back to their floor. 

“Are you saying he was wanted by SHIELD? Should we be worried about someone coming after him?” asked Steve, glancing between Clint, Natasha, and Logan.

“Not exactly bub. I freelanced for Fury when our goals alined with each other. Besides you should be more worried about the health of anyone that comes after me. I’m not really known for my peaceful solutions. I usually use a more deadly six pronged approach to deal with problems.” Logan answered as he pulled a cigar out of his pocket and lit it up. Steve just looked at the cigar and back at Logan to which Logan responded with “What? It’s not like it’s going to kill me.”

“Yeah at least go smoke the damn thing on the balcony. Some of us don’t have healing factor and can still get lung cancer. Besides you stink up this place and Pepper will find a way to punish you. Personally I’d vote for throw you down the Hulk shaft with Bruce right after you to let you two ‘play’ together” Clint said as he waved the smoke out of their faces.

Logan froze at the mention of the Hulk, thinking of some of their past meetings. “You know what? It was rude of me to not to remember my manners. I’ll just go outside to enjoy this.” he said to them as he got up and headed towards the doors that lead to the balcony.

Once Logan was outside, Steve asked Clint and Natasha about Logan’s abrupt change in attitude since he seemed to not give a shit what anyone thought of him or his actions. “Well they have fought in the past. It didn’t go so well for either one of them. Logan’s claws are some of the few things that can hurt the Hulk and he really doesn’t like that I’m sure you can imagine. Also Logan can heal from anything Hulk throws at him, enraging the Hulk more and more making him stronger and stronger. Plus Logan really doesn’t enjoy getting smashed over and over again and again. It’s a real vicious cycle when those two fight. Luckily when they have met, it’s been in remote locations away from people and towns.” answered Natasha, looking out at Logan as she talked. 

“Of course that was before Logan found out that the Hulk wasn’t some mindless rampaging beast. Once he found out that he had been fed false information about the Hulk and Banner, he fought his way through entire platoon of soldiers and threatened to eviscerate the general who sent him after the Hulk. I heard it was Ross and he used one of his claws to dry shave Ross’s mustache off before he left.” added in Clint.

“Actually it was his eyebrows and mustache. My father refused to be seen in public for a month afterwards. Personally I laughed my ass off behind his back.” they heard from the direction of the elevators as Betty walked towards them carrying a med kit. “I came to check if any of you need some medical care after last night. Bruce wanted to but I told him I would do it and he should rest after changing into the Hulk last night. He was snoring before I even made it out of the room. So do any of you need any help?”

While Clint was laughing on the floor imagining General Ross without eyebrows and no mustache, Natasha answered Betty that her and Clint had already took care of each other wounds earlier. She turned to Steve, who told her that he had got some minor scrapes and bruises from the fighting and he was sure they had already healed in the time that they had been back. She still made them all sit and let her look them over after she threatened to go wake up the Hulk and have him hold them down. They let her look them over since they weren’t sure if she could do it but not taking the chance.

As she finished up, Logan was coming back in from the balcony after tossing his finished cigar over the edge. When she was walking away, he asked, “Who’s the hottie doctor? I usually go for redheads but I could make an exception for her.”

“If you really don’t want to get another fight with the Hulk, then Dr. Ross is the last woman who should pursue. She is Dr. Banner’s fiancé.” answered Steve with a grin on his face.

With a thoughtful look on his face, Logan said, “Ok, got it. Stay away from the Hulk’s girl. Thanks for the advice, Cap. Take it that these two filled you in on the history between me and the Hulk? He is one of the few people on this planet I try not to piss off. Even if I can heal from it, it still fucking hurts like a bitch when he smashes me into the ground.”

As the other three laughed at Logan’s statement, J.A.R.V.I.S. interrupted them, “Mr Rogers I regret having to interrupt into your conversation with Mr and Mrs Barton and Mr Howlett, but the message Mr Barnes left for you last night, he asked that I show it to you after a certain amount of time if you had not viewed it before the time limit had expired. The time limit has now expired. If you would turn to the television screen in the living room, I will bring up the message for you.”

Before Clint, Natasha and Logan could comment Steve was out of his chair and standing in front of tv to see the message he had forgotten about in all the excitement of the mission the night before. The video was coming up as the others joined him, showing the Winter Soldier standing in the middle of the underground parking garage staring at a security camera. As it started, they could clearly hear J.A.R.V.I.S. telling the Winter Soldier that he was recording and to start his message. On the video the Winter Soldier started speaking, “This is for Captain America. I had hoped to find you in residence to help me in the infiltration of a HYDRA base in the middle of the city. It is a heavily guarded underground base that contains one of the final chairs I need to destroy. I am leaving this message to inform you to the mission I have undertaken. At this time I am not sure if I can complete this mission on my own. The Soldier says I don’t need any back up, that I am a weapon and can complete on my own. The part that is starting to remember being James or Bucky as you call him, fears that it might be too much. I am not sure which to believe. I have asked Stark’s AI to show this to you if I have not contacted you in over twelve hours. If you have not heard form me in that time, I am either dead or in need of rescue. If I need rescue, James says to do what you do best and come drag his ass out of there, punk. Alright message ended, please stop recor-”. The message cut off after that and the rest was footage of the Winter Soldier breaking the window of a SUV and hot-wiring it before tearing out of the building.

Steve was moving as soon as the video ended, headed to the elevator to get his SHIELD and going to get his friend back. He was grabbed from behind and spun around by Clint, who said, “Whoa Cap. Lets think this through before you go storming off to save Bucky Ok?”

“You heard him! If J.A.R.V.I.S. had to show me after the time limit was over, then Bucky needs rescue. I’m not just going to stand around while he needs me. I refuse to lose him again.” yelled Steve, just about ready to knock out Clint for stopping him.

“I’m not saying we don’t go get him. I’m saying lets get Tony, Bruce, Thor, and Sam up here. Take a breath, see if J.A.R.V.I.S. has any more info from the Winter Soldier and make a plan to rescue your friend. Leave the half ass, by the seat of your pants shit to me, ok? It’s not a good look on you.” Clint said as he stared Steve in the eye trying to get him to think clearly.

Steve took a huge breath in and released it slowly to calm down, knowing Clint was right, being overly emotional wouldn’t help. Once he had got him self under control, he started to have J.A.R.V.I.S. call the rest of the team to meet them in the war room, when Tony, Bruce, Thor and Sam all stepped off the elevator. He glanced at Clint, who just pointed at Natasha who just shrugged. He turned back to the others, opening his mouth to explain when Tony held up his hand to stop him.

“J.A.R.V.I.S. already filled us in. We got to go save Cap’s BFF and kick some HYDRA ass too. So win, win. What’s the plan?” stated Tony.

Before anyone else said anything, Logan asked, “If you all are headed for a fight, I wouldn’t mind riding along. I don’t have any love lost for HYDRA. The few times I can remember dealing with them, I was not a fan of theirs. In fact, I pretty much have a huge dislike for them as a whole. They like to carve up mutants and I down right hate that.”

“Ok, here is what I’m thinking. Tony and Bruce stay here in the tower. Bruce is still tired from transforming last night and Tony can be on site in a moments notice since its in the city. I want him on stand by in case we have to get Bucky to the tower in a hurry. Sam and Clint on overwatch, no one escapes. They all go down. Natasha you go in with us and peal off and do what you do best, info gather and destroy their computer systems. Logan, Thor and myself are going to tear through anything that gets in our way to find Bucky and get him out. Once we locate him and get him out, I don’t care if we topple a building, the base gets gutted. I want it so they can’t even think of using it again. After the lab last night and now this, with it like they’re set up in our backyard, I want HYDRA to looking over their shoulders on the look out for the Avengers kicking in their door.” Steve informed them, getting hell yeahs from Tony, Clint, Sam and affirmative nods from Natasha and Thor. Logan just grinned and popped his claws.

J.A.R.V.I.S. informed the team of the Winter Soldier’s last known location from his phone’s tracking chip. They were surprised to find that the location was only about ten blocks away. When Tony brought up a camera feed from a traffic camera, all they saw was a nondescript office building. They only thing that was out of the ordinary was the piece of plywood that was covering a broken out plate glass door on the front of the building. Sam said he would carry Clint over and they would start scouting out the area while the rest of them followed in a vehicle so that they could make a getaway if need be.

As Sam and Clint took off with Thor following behind as back up just in case, Tony called down for a vehicle for the team as the other headed down in the elevator. When they arrived in the underground garage it was to find a military grade Humvee waiting for them. Logan just whistled as they jumped in to which Natasha shrugged in response, like its Tony Stark what did you expect? They barely had the doors closed before Steve was tearing out of the garage, driving across sidewalks and down alleys in his rush to rescue Bucky. While Steve was occupied with driving, Natasha had a quiet word with Logan asking to make sure Steve kept safe since he was so emotional on this mission. Logan said he would watch Steve back and drag him out if need be.

After about twenty minutes of working through traffic, driving down sidewalks and alleys, Steve, Natasha and Logan arrived at the address of the office building disguising the HYDRA base. Steve just started marching towards the doors as he said, “Hawkeye, could you knock on the door to let them know we’re here?”

The entrance blew open from an explosive arrow as Clint said, “I think I broke the doorbell, Cap. Sorry. Not.”

As Steve stepped through the smoking hole where the front doors were, a group of guards came tearing around the corner with automatic weapons at the ready. As he yelled out for the others to take cover, the guards were knocked to the ground from the side as Mjolnir came flying in through another window from where Thor had thrown it. They all moved past the taken care of guards, Mjolnir jumping into Thor’s hand as he stalked past the pile of bodies. They quickly found the entrance to the underground base as it seemed that the Winter Soldier had just ripped the door out of the wall and left it laying. They picked up the pace as they headed down into the hidden base, hardly pausing when they met resistence, meeting it with SHIELD, hammer or claws. Once they were almost through the first floor, Natasha broke off when she spotted a security room. She told Steve that she would update him on enemy movement once she got control of the systems. Clint broke the tension by telling them “That means as soon as she was done kicking the guards asses she’ll get back to you with the info.”

Her response was “Верно. Но не 't сказать все мои секреты, мой сильный орла.” (True. But don't tell all my secrets, my strong hawk.)

As Logan laughed and Thor just looked confused at the turn of the conversation, Steve barked out, “Hey you two knock off the flirting and pay attention. I’d like to get my best friend back sometime today.”

With murmured sorrys from the two spyssassins, the unstoppable force of Captain America, Wolverine and Thor burst through to the next level of the base to be met with a heavily reinforced make shift barrier blocking their path. It probably would have been more of a problem if it had been there to keep them out, but it was facing the other way to keep something in or to Steve’s thinking someone. The guards manning it didn’t know what hit them as Thor’s hammer hit the barrier and Captain America bulldozed his way through them with a vengeance. As the few remaining standing guards prepared to fire, the were greeted with very pissed off looking man with six razor sharp claws tearing through them and their weapons. The same scene repeated itself over and over again as the three of them tore through the base like a hot knife through butter. 

They had clear the fifth or sixth floor of any threats when Natasha called to Steve on the coms, “Steve, I have a location on the Winter Soldier. He is holed up in a lab at the bottom of the base. I’m surprised that they haven’t got to him yet. He is surrounded with an army of HYDRA down there.”

Steve asked her, “Is there a chair with restraints and what could be a cryo tank? If there is, that lab is built to keep the Winter Soldier from escaping. It is most likely heavily reinforced against attack from either side.” 

“That would be a yes on all counts. What’s the plan Cap?” she asked.

“At this point, I think I’m going to take a page out of Tony’s playbook and go with a simple rush in and attack. But I’m willing to share the fun. Would you guys like to join us?” replied Steve as he hefted his SHIELD.

“Already on our way. Save some for us.” said Clint was a maniacal tone in his voice, the one he saved for people he really liked shooting, like HYDRA agents. 

With a nod from Thor and grin from Logan who had some how found a cigar to smoke, Steve kicked open the last door that lead toward the lab the Winter Soldier was holed up in. When they hit the HYDRA agents surrounding the lab, they drove four lines into them before any of them realized that they were under attack. Once they did, they brought everything they had at their disposal, only to have it hardly even slow down the Fury of a god, berserker, and a very pissed off super soldier. Once two of the deadliest people on the planet joined in, the call for a full retreat was quickly called for. HYDRA thought to regroup and call in reinforcements to surround the Avengers, not knowing Black Widow had sabotaged the communications and no help was coming.

But none of that concerned the group of heros standing in front of the lab trying to figure out how to open it up to get to the Winter Soldier. Natasha was trying to hack in the system to try to open the door and Steve was pounding on the door, try to get Bucky to hear him and open the door. Logan solved the entire problem by cutting the door out of the wall with his claws. They then had Thor throw the now useless door out the way as Steve headed in with his shield raised while the others waited out in the hall so as not to crowd the volatile assassin inside.

As he stepped in the room, Steve looked around trying to spot his old friend. He finally saw him crouched behind an overturned table he was using to SHIELD himself. When Bucky spotted Steve, he said, “About time you got here, punk. I was starting to think I was going to have to get out of here on my own.”

“Shut your trap, jerk. I was busy fighting cyborgs last night. Excuse me for not coming until I got your message. I’m not the one who put the time limit on when it would be shown to me.” retorted Steve as he crossed the room to pull his friend in to a hug.

“Ok definitely a story I want to hear. But lets get out of here. I planted a fuck load of explosives in here to make sure the chair and cryo tank are destroyed. I’d really rather not be around when they go boom.” Bucky said as he started out of the room, to be met with Hawkeye standing in the door with a tranquilizer arrow aimed at him. 

As Steve signaled for him to relax, Clint shrugged and said, “Wasn’t sure if we’d find Bucky or the Winter Soldier in there. Just wanted to be ready to end it quickly and get out of here. I would of apologized later. Probably.”

They all had a small tension releasing laugh at that as they all started to rush their way out of the base. They met no resistance on their way out and made it to the SUV with no problems. As they all drove off in the Humvee, Steve order Sam to fly on ahead to fill in Tony and Bruce and asked Thor who was flying above them if he thought he could level the building. With a hearty laugh, Thor told him that he would strive to do the Hulk justice in the destruction he would do to the structure.

They all felt the quake in the ground along with the boom as Thor launched Mjolnir through the building and base like a bunker buster missile. He kept throwing the hammer till there was just rubble left in a giant sinkhole in the ground. 

Meanwhile the rest of the team was arriving at the tower in the underground garage. Clint and Natasha were out of the vehicle almost as soon as they stopped headed for the elevator. Logan climbed out and walked over to the wall, leaning against it to watch how Bucky would react now that they were out of danger. 

Steve stepped out of the Humvee, sliding his SHIELD on to his back, watching Bucky to see if they were dealing with his friend or if the Soldier had taken over again. Bucky cautiously looked over his surroundings now that rush of combat and the shock of Steve rescuing him had started to wear off. He was growing tense and twitchy, meaning that the Soldier wanted to take over, to attack the problem so it wouldn’t be a problem anymore. Before he could kick the door off the Humvee, Steve spoke up, “Before you decide to escape, just know that we won’t hold you here if you want to leave. I would like it if you stayed, but only if it what you want. But if you do decide to leave, at least come upstairs to let Tony look at your arm. I can tell it’s not work correctly by the way you’re holding it.” When Bucky looked at him with raised eyebrows in surprise, he told him, “I’ve fought you before remember? I know how well it can move from experience. I can tell its not working right. If I had to guess, you’ve been using it as a club since you can’t fix it on your own. I’m I close?”

With a irritated exhale out of his nose, Bucky slammed the door open and stepped out. He glared at Steve before stomping towards the elevator, which opened as he reached it. Steve just shook his head as he followed after Bucky, while Logan chuckled as he joined the two of them on the elevator. Just before the doors closed they heard a muffled thump. When Steve wondered out loud what that was, Bucky shrugged and said, “Probably the explosives I planted in the underground base. I planted a lot of them. Really didn’t want the chair to survive.”

Logan was still laughing at what Bucky said as they arrived on the floor that housed Tony and Bruce’s labs. When Bucky balked at stepping out of the elevator at the clinical look of the lab reminding him of the HYDRA labs, Steve was trying to figure out how to get him to move when Tony came flying down the hall on an office chair propelling himself with a fire extinguisher. 

“Tony what the hell are you doing? Aren’t you supposed to be waiting for us so you can fix Bucky’s arm?” Steve yelled at the laughing man-child as he flew by.

“You guys were taking to long and I got bored. Bruce wouldn’t let me dive in to a project since we were waiting on you to arrive, so I grabbed a fire extinguisher and a chair to see if I could use it to race up and down the halls. Got to make your own fun.” retorted Tony as he came scooting back down the hall with controlled blasts from the fire extinguisher. 

Before Steve could start laying into Tony for such childish behavior, they were interrupted by a rusty sounding laugh from the back of the elevator. They all looked to see Bucky sitting on the floor of the elevator laughing so hard he couldn’t stand. As he sat there laughing, Tony got up and motioned getting Bucky in to the chair and mimed pushing him towards the lab. Steve and Logan reached down to grab Bucky under the arms and lifted him into the chair, while Tony kept up a running commentary of some of the stupid stuff he had done to alleviate boredom. By the time Bucky even realized he was in the lab, Tony had already started scan his arm to pinpoint some of the problems.

Logan said he was headed upstairs to find a beer and to light up a cigar on the balcony, leaving Steve to follow Tony and Bucky into the lab. As he was standing just inside the door to Tony’s lab, Bruce walked in stopping by him as he said, “A regular fire extinguisher wouldn’t be able to move a grown man very far, let alone propel him down the hall.” When Steve looked at him in question, Bruce said, “We overcharged a fire extinguisher and had J.A.R.V.I.S. tell us when you were almost here. We thought about how Bucky would react to having to enter a lab to have his arm worked on. We also thought about how HYDRA treated him and how they acted around him. We figured that we would try to be as opposite acting as we could be to show we aren’t interested in doing anything but help him.” As Steve watched Bruce move towards Tony to help work on Bucky’s arm, he felt a tear trail its way down his cheek because he was so moved at how much thought Tony and Bruce had put in to try and put Bucky at ease.

As Bruce stepped up to Tony and Bucky, Tony was peering through a set of magnifying lens with a small screwdriver in his teeth as he tinkered with the inter workings of Bucky’s metal arm as he told Bucky that it would be just a stop gap getting the arm to work, that he really needed to have a new one since this one was falling apart. Bruce placed his hand on Bucky’s shoulder to let him know he was there and told him he was going to examine where the arm was attached be cause it looked irritated at first glance. After Bucky acknowledged what he said, Bruce started a though examination of the area around where Bucky’s arm was connected. After running several devices and having J.A.R.V.I.S. run a biometric scan of Bucky, Bruce stepped back with a worried look on his face.

Once Tony got the arm and hand working well enough to move, he started to try to sell Bucky on letting him make him a new arm that he thought he could even give him a sense of touch, only to quickly shut up when he noticed the worried look on Bruce’s face. “Bruce, what’s the matter? Is something wrong? What did you find?” asked Tony, getting the attention of Steve and Bucky, both of who focused in on the doctor.

Instead of answering Tony, Bruce turned to Bucky asking him, “When they attached the arm, were you awake for it?”

“Yes, they used the pain of the procedure as part of my torture. I think it was what might of finally broke my will to resist. Though it didn’t stop me from lashing out when it was over, just made them keep me strapped down after a killed five doctors and injured several others. Why do you ask?” answered Bucky.

“Did they just attach the arm or was there other things done at the same time?” asked Bruce.

“What the problem, Bruce?” asked Tony, while Steve told Bucky he was sorry that had happened to him, to which Bucky told him it wasn’t his fault, after which he told Bruce that it was just the arm that he remembered being attached.

“From the scans I’ve done on his arm and of him, Bucky needs to have surgery to fix how the whole arm and shoulder are attached to his body. Plus there are poison and explosive packs sealed in to his body connected to the shoulder assembly in case anyone tampers with it. Even taking off the arm to rebuild it would cause them to trigger. I know it’s not what you want to hear as soon as you get here, but we need to put you under and fix this before it kills you. We have time if you want to think about it or get use to us so that you know that we just want to help you. It up to you. Or if you would rather have us find someone else do the work, someone we could prove to be non-threatening.” Bruce explained to everyone, ending up talking to Bucky to reinforce what he was saying.

Bucky stared Bruce in the eye as he took in what he was just told while Tony started analyzing the 3D representation of the scans of Bucky’s arm and shoulder. Steve just stood behind him and squeezed his other shoulder, telling him he had Bucky’s back no matter the decision he made. Once he had processed what Bruce had told him, Bucky said, “If Stevie trusts you, I’ll trust that you aren’t going to harm me. All that I ask is that we do it in a room with a window. I don’t want to do this in an enclosed room since HYDRA always kept me in underground labs when ever they worked on me. I’d like a view. Also is there anyway I could be awake, that you could just do a nerve block and let me be awake for it. It don’t want to be put to sleep or strapped down. I might react badly at that.”

“I think we could agree to most of that, except for when we repair your shoulder. Neither of us is qualified to do that kind of work and we’ll have to bring in a actual surgeon t do that. We will introduce you to them and only keep you under for the bare minium that we would have to. Please trust that we are trying to do what is best for you. If it makes you feel better Steve can sit in on the procedure to make sure we don’t screw up.” answered Tony. He quickly added, “And before you ask Steve, yes we can trust the surgeon I have in mind. It’s the same one I had when I had the arc reactor removed and the hole in my chest fixed. He knows what he’s doing and how to keep a secret.” as Steve opened his mouth, only to close it after Tony’s answer.

After think about what Tony had said, Bucky agreed to the plan to fix his arm and shoulder. Upon hearing that, Tony kicked Steve and Bucky out of the lab so him and Bruce could start making the replacement shoulder and arm assembly. As they walked out, they could hear Tony talking about how to reattach nerves to give Bucky felling back in his hand and arm, while Bruce started mumbling how to integrate the new shoulder into Bucky’s body with the least impact while providing maximum stability.

While they waited for the elevator, Steve said, “Well I think we’ve pretty much lost the two of them for the next twenty four hours. I better break the news to Pepper and Betty.” 

“I have already informed Ms Potts that Mr Stark would be in his lab for the foreseeable future. Dr Ross is actually on her way to assist Dr. Banner in the design of Mr Barnes’s new shoulder. I shall endeavor to get them to eat at some point in the evening.” J.A.R.V.I.S. informed them as the elevator arrived. 

Steve thanked the AI as they rode up towards his floor so he could offer to let Bucky get cleaned up and some fresh clothes. He didn’t want to say anything, but Bucky was smelling kind of rank. Once they stepped off the elevator on to his floor, Steve was still trying to figure out how to offer a shower to Bucky without offending him when Bucky made the whole process moot by asking if he could clean up. Steve showed him to the bathroom, pointing out towels, soap, and telling him he would get him a shirt and sweat pants to wear so he wouldn’t have to wear dirty clothes. When he got back with the clothes and found Bucky still standing in the bathroom, he was afraid that Bucky had sipped back into some kind of programing. He carefully stepped into the room, ready to defend himself, only to find Bucky’s eyes darting over everything in the bathroom like he could believe what he was seeing. He turned to Steve saying, “All of this is just for you? You don’t have to share with anyone? Steve there is a separate bathtub and shower! Both of which are huge. The toilet is in its own closed off section so that there is privacy. We used to have to share a wobblely toilet with an entire floor of an apartment building. We had to heat our own water and bath quickly so the water would stay warm.”

“I know. I remember. But don’t think that this is something I had done. Tony has bathroom like this on every floor that is lived in. In fact this is just what he calls the basic package. If you want to redesign it or have some add in, all I have to do is ask and he’ll have it done. Personally I think it’s too much. I would have been happy with a small shower and toilet in a small bathroom, but Tony looked horrified when I said it. Told to just enjoy it or he would redesign my entire floor in a Captain America motif. So I just go with it.” Steve answered, relieved that his friend was just stunned by Tony’s excess and not about to go all Winter Soldier on him. He showed Bucky how to get the shower running with J.A.R.V.I.S.’s help. He left his friend to his shower while he went out to the living room to make something to eat for his friend, only to find two assassins sitting on his kitchen island sharing an apple from his fruit bowl. Before he could ask why they were there Natasha spoke up, “We ordered food already so don’t bother making anything. We didn’t know what James would like so we got pizza, Chinese, Thai, subs, Italian. Pretty much anything we could think of. Once he is done showering, bring him up to the communal floor for dinner. Pepper’s orders. She said you and him are not allowed to hide down here since her boyfriend is stuck in his lab for you. And James we’re not here to attack, so go finish your shower before you slip on the floor with your wet feet.”

When Steve looked over his shoulder, he saw a wet Bucky standing there holding what looked like a snapped off toilet brush handle. When he glanced down at it and back up to Bucky’s face, Bucky just shrugged like he was saying ‘What? It was the only thing I could find on short notice.’ When he turned around to tell Natasha that they would meet them up there, all he was greeted with was an apple core and the sound of the vent cover snapping in place. After shooing Bucky back into the shower, Steve threw the apple core away and went to place his SHIELD in his armory along with his uniform. He walked into his room and got some comfy clothes to wear after he showered once Bucky was done. Once Bucky emerged from the first real shower he had since he started to regain his memories, Steve took a quick one so as not to leave Bucky alone for to long. When he stepped out of the bathroom, he found Bucky looking at the pictures of the Howling Commandos he had on the wall next to where his shield rested.

As Steve stepped up behind him, Bucky said, “The man that was with us earlier, he’s in the pictures with us with the Commandos. Is he like us, been given a form of the super soldier serum?”

“No Buck, Logan is a mutant. He has a healing factor that works so well that he’s basically immortal. Also he does remember being a Howling Commando. Some kind of injury to the head that healed the brain, but not the memories.” answered Steve. “Come on buddy, there is food waiting on us upstairs. You can talk to him about it up there.”

The two super soldiers headed up to the communal level where they were greeted with a table full of take out food and the rest of the Avengers and Coulson’s team. As Steve showed him the variety of different foods, Bucky’s stomach stared growling from hunger. When asked by Clint when the last time he had ate was, they were all shocked to hear that it had been over a week ago and that it had been something he had dug out of a dumpster. Pepper immediately stepped forward and sat Bucky down, telling him that he was to eat as much as he wanted and he was not to get up till he was full and that was an order. When Bucky looked at Steve with a ‘what gives? Who does this person think she is?’ look, all Steve said was, “You’re on your own dealing with Pepper. You kicked in her mothering side, you deal with it. We have all learned to not mess with Ms Potts, she’ll just argue you in to submission.”

As the rest of the room had a laugh over that statement and Pepper took a swipe at Steve, Bucky gave up the fight with hunger, reaching for a plate and placing a little of everything on it to try. As he sat there eating, he observed the rest of the room, watching how they all were relaxed, not even caring that they had a unstable ex-HYDRA assassin in the room with them. Someone that could trigger into explosive action and possibly kill one of them. He was planning on slipping out once they were throughly distracted, after he had gotten his fill of food. He figured that he could go another two weeks on what he was eating here before he’d have to eat again. 

He had just finished his fifth plate of food, particularly enjoying something called General Tso’s chicken, when he thought he saw his opportunity to slip out. As the rest of the room cheered on Sam, Skye, Coulson, and Jane who were play some kind of cartoon racing game (MarioKart), Bucky ducked around the corner and headed towards the stairs. Just as he placed his foot on the first step, the vent cover above him flipped open and Clint dropped down in front of him with a smirk on his face. As he got ready to fight his way past the archer, he heard from behind, “You lasted longer than I thought you would. You actually ate your fill in food before you tried to escape. I owe Clint twenty buck now.”

“Steve you got to let me go. I’m dangerous. I could flip out and hurt someone. I’m a weapon, a broken weapon.” Bucky said , not turning to look at his friend.

Steve angrily burst out, “YOU ARE NOT A WEAPON GOD DAMN IT. YOU ARE JAMES BARNES! YOU ARE MY BEST FRIEND AND I’M NOT LOSING YOU AGAIN YOU STUBBORN ASS! If you leave I’m coming with you, because just like you promised when my mom died, I’m with you till the end of the line. Where you go, I go. Got that?” 

“Besides it’s not like most of us are angels around here anyways,” interjected Clint, “we have two psychologically damaged assassins, a man out of time, a man who flies on wings strapped to his back, a god who crushes things because he doesn’t know is own strength, a man who turn in to a giant green rage machine, a man who came back from the dead lead entirely new team of agents and we all live in the tower of a man who is probably one step from being a supervillian on a bad day. Where else are you going to find people that can understand you on a level that we can. You need to understand how to deal with getting rid of the programing I your brain, talk to Natasha. Want to learn how to control the Soldier, discuss it with Bruce. If he can control the Hulk, you can control the Soldier. Want to talk to someone who understands what being held captive is like? Myself, Natasha, or Tony have some insight in to that.”

As what Clint said sank in to his mind, Bucky realized that he didn’t have to run anymore. That maybe he could find a home here with his best friend and his teammates. As the exhausted man slumped to the ground as the tension released from his body and he was caught by his friend, Steve mouthed a silent ‘Thank You’ to Clint who just nodded as he walked by, yelling out he had next game as he was joined by a hidden Natasha slipping I beside him. Steve helped Bucky over and in to the elevator to take him to his floor to sleep, beginning to hope that he might have his friend back for good.

 

For the next several days, all Bucky did was eat and nap trying to recover some body mass while recuperating from the years of cryo sleep and malnutrition. It seemed that HYDRA just fed him enough to survive and not to keep up with his super soldier metabolism. Keeping him on the verge of starvation kept him compliant it seemed. Not on Steve’s watch, he fed Bucky to bursting ever chance he got so his friend could recover. It took him most of the first day to convince his friend that it was ok to eat all he wanted, that there was plenty and no one would get mad. It finally took having J.A.R.V.I.S. tap into supermarket security feeds to show that there was plenty of food for everyone and not just the rich like Tony Stark. Steve told him it was something he had to get over when he first woke up too. That when he went down, they were on war rations and food was scarce due to the war and great depression. Once Bucky was convince that he could eat as much as he wanted, the rest of the team took upon themselves to introduce Bucky to as many different kinds of food as they could. Clint brought him pizza, Thor gave him poptarts, Sam brought him tacos, Natasha surprised him with cupcakes from a small Russian bakery she knew. By far the greatest surprise was Coulson showing up with Logan in tow with barbeque and beer to enjoy. Coulson later confided to May that it was a dream come true to have lunch with Captain America, Bucky and a member of the Howling Commandos. 

At the end of a week Tony and Bruce announced that they were ready to fix Bucky’s shoulder assembly and arm interface. They sat Steve and Bucky down to explain how they were going to completely rebuild and reinforce Bucky’s shoulder and reconnect the nerves that would give him a renewed sense of touch in his new arm. Tony also explained how he had designed Bucky an everyday arm that he could use in his everyday life that would almost the same as his flesh and blood arm. Then when they had missions he would be able to attach a battle arm that would be more hardy and lethal in use. Tony figured it would be a good way for Bucky to be able to step back from the Soldier mentality and be able to find balance in his life. Tony went on the explain that he had a basic design for the battle arm but he wanted Bucky’s input so that it would be what would work for Bucky and not what Tony thought he needed. Both Steve and Bucky were stunned at the amount of work and thought that the two scientists had put into helping Bucky. They were also very thankful and couldn’t seem to stop from saying it over and over again.

Bruce told them that they would be doing the procedure the next morning as that was the soonest that they could get the surgeon to the tower. Steve told Tony and Bruce that they would be ready when they were and Bucky said he was surprised to be kind of excited to have his arm fixed. He said he had spent so long trying to ignore it and the pain from it, that he didn’t know how he would react from being free from it and to be able to treat it as an asset and not as an unwanted hindrance and punishment.

The next morning Steve and Bucky stepped off the elevator on a different level of labs from the ones that Tony and Bruce used. When they arrived at the door that J.A.R.V.I.S. directed them to, they found that Tony kept his promise to have a window and a view. The entire outer wall of the room was one giant window overlooking the city. They had also positioned the chair that he was going to sit in so that he would be able to look out of the window. When Steve said that was glad that they had done this, Tony told him it was nothing and that he had decided to dedicate this space to any future work they might have to do for Bucky. He was also going to redo the entire floor into a medical center with on site doctors and care. They had thought about it and it made sense to do it, with fight against HYDRA most likely to be a long one, plus whatever else they might have to deal with. Any of them could need medical care and that it would be smart to have it on site then try to bring to them or have to go to it.

Both Bucky and Steve agreed that it wasn’t a bad idea and probably a much needed addition to the tower. Steve suggest that Tony could offer reduced medical care to his Stark Industries employees to cover the cost of keeping the medical staff on site. Tony thought it was an excellent idea and that he would use that argument when he brought it up to Pepper. When Bucky looked at Tony after that statement, Bruce explained that Tony had only thought up the whole idea about five minutes before they had arrived. Waving off that detail, Tony asked Bucky if he was ready to get on with the procedure. After getting a yes from him, Tony introduced the surgeon that they had brought in to do the repair and clean up of the shoulder. The surgeon then took over and explained how he was going to work with Dr. Banner to detatch the old shoulder assembly, clean up his shoulder joint, and remove the poison and explosive packs that were connected to the old assembly. They then would start reinforcing his skeletal structure to support the new shoulder assembly, after which they would wake him up and Dr. Banner would switch out with Tony. Tony and the doctor with the help of J.A.R.V.I.S., would then start the process of reconnecting Bucky’s nerves to give him felling in his new shoulder and arm. Once that was done they would be able to finish the final attachment of his new shoulder assembly and Tony would be able to calibrate his new arm. With a deep breath, Bucky said he understood and he was ready to move forward with the procedure.

As Bucky sat down in the chair, Tony brought over a comfortable chair for Steve since he figured he wouldn’t leave his friend to go through this alone. Once Bucky was settled in to the chair and the doctor was ready, Tony attached a machine as he explained that it produced a low level EMP pulse that would keep the arm from working and setting off the poison and explosives. Once Tony turned on the machine, Bucky’s arm became dead weight that they set on a rolling cart that they would wheel out of the room once they had get everything removed so that there wasn’t any chance of an accident. Tony quickly removed the arm from the shoulder, leaving the shoulder ready to be removed. The surgeon then told Bucky that they would be put him under so that he could move forward in the quickest and most efficient matter. Bucky nodded that he was ready, feeling only slight anxiety since he was giving permission and not having it forced on him against his will. Once Bucky was under, the surgeon and Bruce made short work of getting the shoulder assembly removed and the surgeon cutting out damaged muscle tissue and bone damage. The surgeon was able to fix some of the skeletal damage that Bruce would have probably just removed if he had been the one to do it. They then started to add in the new shoulder assembly and reinforcement, blending it in such a way so the Bucky’s body would grow in and around it to give him a more natural movement and feel.

After the surgeon closed up most of the incisions he had made, Bruce stepped out of the way and Tony stepped in bringing a surgical robot that they would use to test and attach the nerves in the new shoulder and arm interface. They slowly woke up Bucky so he wouldn’t become disorientated and attack them. Steve talked to him in a low voice until he was fully awake. Tony then told him that the surgeon was going to find and test the nerves that they would reattaching. Bucky would have to tell them what he felt and Tony and J.A.R.V.I.S. would record and program each one in the shoulder interface so that it would correspond with the interface in the arms that he would be abler to attach. They started after Bucky said he understood and for the next four and a half hours he slow regained sensations on a part of his body he never thought to feel again. Once they had done all they could, Tony slowly ran some tests through the shoulder interface to make sure that they hadn’t made any mistakes. Once he was satisfied with the results, he gave the go ahead for the final attachment of the shoulder interface into the shoulder assembly. As Bruce stepped back in to help with that, Tony started to program the interface data into the system to sync the two interfaces before the attachment of Bucky’s new arm. 

After the surgeon and Bruce finished the last of the work on the shoulder and closed the last of the incisions, cleaning and bandaging the area with instructions to take it easy for a few days even with super soldier healing, Tony informed Bucky he had his new arm ready to be attached to see if the interfaces would work how he designed. With a nervousness he wasn’t excepting, Bucky said he was ready to see if he would have feeling from his left arm again in over seventy years. Tony then brought over a skeletal metal arm and hand, placing at the shoulder interface and pressing a section on the front and four indentations on the backside of the arm that needed pressure to work so that it couldn’t be unattached by accident by bumping the in one place. As he made sure it was connecting correctly and explained to Bucky how to attach and detatch the arm, Steve commented that at least Bucky’s old arm resembled an entire arm and not a robots. Tony then looked around Bucky with a cocked eyebrow and told Steve that the arm was going to br covered in a artificial skin that would closely match Bucky’s skin tone so that unless someone looked closely, they wouldn’t even know that it was a prostatic arm. He hadn’t added the skin yet in case he needed to make any last minute adjustments. Both Bucky and Steve stared at Tony in astonishment as they realized that Tony was trying to let Bucky have a real decent chance at healing and normal life as he could. 

After having Bucky run through some simple tests to make sure he could move the hand and arm, Tony had him start touching objects to test the sensitivity of the hand and arm. Bucky was ecstatic to find he could feel with his new hand. He kept reaching out and shaking Steve’s hand just because he could feel the pressure and movement in his new arm and hand. Tony then told him that it was all looking good and that if he gave him until later in the evening, that he would have an arm with skin, since the procedure to mold the skin on took awhile. Bucky said that he would be ready when it was done as he took it off and handed it to Tony. He and Steve then left the room and headed to Steve’s floor so Bucky could rest and get something to eat.

At around five that evening, the was a knock on Steve’s door. When it was opened, it revealed Tony standing there with the new arm around his neck like it had him in a headlock, prompting Steve to say, “You have no idea how many times that I wish I could do that to you when you annoy me.”

Tony just laughed as he came in and tried to slap Steve on the ass with the arm as he walked by. Steve dodged the attempt and flicked Tony in the back of the head as he closed the door. Tony rubbed his head while giving Steve a squint eyed look as he walked over to where Bucky was sitting on the couch. He handed the arm with its newly attached skin to Bucky, who marveled at how natural it looked. Bucky wasted no time sitting up and putting his new arm on. As he flexed the are and hand, it took him a few moments to realize that he could feel where his other hand was touching on the skin, not just not the palm of his hand. When he asked Tony about it, Tony explained that he had tried to have low level electrical signals that reacted to pressure on the artificial skin. He admitted that he hadn’t been sure that it would work until it had been attached to Bucky. He was happy that it worked.

Tony then wish them a good night and Bucky a speedy recovery as he headed back out the door saying he was going to find something to eat and head for bed, that the focus required for what they did today had did him in for the night. Bucky thanked him again for what he did, to which Tony wave it off telling him it gave him a chance to play and bring him up to date with Starktech. Bucky laughed and thanked him again anyways. Right before Tony made it out the door, Steve stopped him only to surprise him with a bone crushing hug, whispering to him, “Thank you for opening your home to him and helping him to have as normal life as he can. I know you try to play it off like its no big deal, but this is huge and I will be forever grateful for what you have done to help me find and regain my best friend. There is nothing I can ever say that will express what this means to me. Thank you.”

If Tony Stark had tears in his eyes after the heartfelt thank you he received from Captain America, well that’s between him, Pepper and J.A.R.V.I.S.


	11. Chapter 10

In the weeks after the rapid rescue and acceptance of James ‘Bucky’ Barnes in to Avengers tower , the ex-HYDRA assassin and captive was making remarkable progress in regaining more of his memories and accepting his role in the killing of so many people when under control of HYDRA. When Steve and Sam wanted to find a therapist for Bucky to talk to, they wanted someone who could help him but still be able to handle the situation if his therapy triggered a embedded responses in his mind. They were both pleasantly surprised when Bruce suggested a friend of his by the name of Leonard Samson. It seemed that like Bruce, Dr. Samson had been exposed to gamma radiation and was now stronger and more able to withstand damage. He also didn’t get stronger like the Hulk when angry, so he wouldn’t accidently hurt Bucky if he needed to restrain him if the need arose and wouldn’t be hurt quite as easily at the same time. Dr Samson was more than happy to help out Bucky as he saw the case as a challenge to undo all the brainwashing and damage HYDRA had done. Dr Samson also approved of the new arm that Tony had made Bucky, stating that the look and feel of the arm helped to ease the stress of what had been done to him physically and mentally since it was more natural looking than his previous metal arm. So all and all Bucky was well on the way to a better future.

 

Pepper was glad they had been able to help James Barnes since he was Steve’s best friend and a hero turned victim, but when it boiled down to it, it had been the right thing to do. It also helped that helping James also brought out the caring side of Tony and she would never not love when that happened because it just made her love him more and able to deal with him disappearing into his lab for days at a time sometimes. 

She also loved the idea Tony had about dedicating a floor to a medical center for rapid response in an emergency with one of the Avengers, but also providing low cost healthcare for Stark Industries employees. After a month of renovations and a round of hiring reliable discreet nurses and doctors, one of which was Dr Samson since she thought the Avengers could do with having him around, the center was ready to open. 

But that was not the reason she found herself entering Tony’s lab to find her wayward fiancé. After seeing the result of Tony’s work on a new arm for James, Pepper had talked him into drawing up simplified plans of the design to market as next generation replacement limbs for amputees. If they worked half as well the one Tony build for James, Tony’s genius could give mobility back to lots of deserving people. They were looking into providing no cost artificial limbs to returning wounded vets and also to injured first responders hurt on the job. 

Only problem was that Pepper had not seen Tony in three days after he said he would head down to the lab to get on the simplification of the plans. She feared that he had got sidetracked by an idea and lost track of the days. She would have checked on him before now, but she had been overseeing last minute decisions for the medical center and discreetly finding James the best lawyers for when the world learned that they were housing the Winter Soldier and decided that they wanted to use him as a scapegoat for the revelation of HYDRA and its horrible acts.

“This way Gwen, I think I spotted him over in the corner. I swear if he is working on one of his Ironman suits when I waiting on those plans, he’s going to need to go to the new medical center to remove my Manolo high heel from his ass.” fumed Pepper as she and her personal assistant Gwen Stacy walked through the lab. 

Gwen covered her mouth with her hand to hide her laugh as she imagined Pepper kicking Tony in the ass. As she brought herself under control, she said, “Ms Potts I’m sure he hasn’t intentional been holding up the progress of the new product launch. He probably had an idea and got sidetracked.”

“Pepper. I keep telling you it’s ok to call me Pepper, not Ms Potts. We work together on a daily basis, it’s ok to relax a little. Loosen up a little.”

“Yes Ms Po-, I mean Pepper.” Gwen quickly corrected when Pepper shot her a look. Luckily she was saved from further conversation by their arrival at the area were Tony was busy working on a metal arm.

Once he was done welding and had flipped his dark goggles up on his head, Pepper tapped him on the shoulder. Tony just leaned back and looked at the two women upside down. “Hi Pepper! What brings you here? I thought you said you were done with my labs when I made you CEO.” Then with a sudden frown, “You hate coming here. Oh shit, what did I do? Forget a date? Make one too many snarky comments on twitter? Forget to feed the dog? Oh wait we don’t have a dog. I’m just about done with the prototype of the simplified artificial limb. I had to rework it some because regular people don’t have super soldier strength and wouldn’t be able to handle how robust that build would have been. End of the day at the most and then you can yell at me all you want ok sweetie? Who is that? That’s not Jules. Where’s Jules?”

As Gwen stared at Tony and the amount of word that came out of him while he looked at them upside down, Pepper shook her head a little before asking, “J.A.R.V.I.S., how much coffee has Tony had? Or what kind of coffee has he had? Because he is about five seconds from bouncing off the walls.”

“Sir has had a dozen cups of what Mr Barton calls trucker coffee.” answered the AI.

“What exactly is trucker coffee?” asked Gwen.

“Its coffee that has been brewed through three times, adding new coffee grounds on top of old to make a super caffeinated drink that truckers drink while driving to stay awake,” Pepper told her. “J.A.R.V.I.S. informed Natasha what Clint did to Tony. She’ll take care of making sure he doesn’t do it again. Meanwhile Tony is cut off until he comes down off the caffeine high.”

Tony made a wounded sound that his coffee supply was being cut off temporarily. Pepper turned to him after hearing his distress. “It’s your own fault. What have I said about accepting anything from Clint? That he’s probably bringing it to you to mess with you. As to why I’m here, it’s actually about the prototype you’re working on now. You’ve been down here for three days and I thought that you were just making up plans for the tech division to use. Also this is Gwen Stacy, my new personal assistant. Jules was promoted to head up the LA offices awhile ago.”

Tony snapped his fingers and spun around on his stool saying, “Oh yeah! Now I remember. I congratulated her right? She was great, didn’t take any shit off anyone especially me. Guess that’s why you promoted her though huh?” Looking back at the prototype he was making, he said, “I spent the first day on trying to make the plans for Bucky work for others before I scraped that idea and decided to pare down the build to make it more cost effective and easier to use. Plus I had to help Jane a little since she accidently created another small black hole again. The assistant who thought it was funny to play with her equipment was not laughing after a pissed god of thunder held him upside down over the edge of the building. I told him if he does it again I was going to let Thor drop him. Luckily we were able to shut it down easily, so minimal damage. Bruce and Betty went to the sub-basement after the Hulk made appearance due to Bruce losing his glasses to the black hole. Last time I checked on them, Betty was reading Dr. Seuss to the Hulk while he held her in his lap. I promise that I will have it done by days end.”

As Pepper cupped his cheek and kissed him, saying thank you as she stepped back, Gwen was looking at a separate screen that had the artificial skin Tony made for Bucky’s arm. When Tony noticed her interest, he asked her opinion of the invention. She answered absently as she stared at the screen, ideas flowing in her head, “I was just thinking that if you tweaked the formula some you could make a simplified version of Mr Barnes skin for your prototype so that people have the option to choose a more natural look. Also if you work it in a different direction, you could possibly make universal skin grafts for burn victims or even self sealing emergency bandages that could help save lives. Maybe if you used type O blood or plasma when making it.” When she realized that the other two were staring at her, she started to fidget in embarrassment. Luckily she was saved from her embarrassment by the arrival of one Darcy Lewis.

Darcy walked up to the three of them and promptly pointed Gwen in the side. When they all looked at her, she said, “What? You were looking at her like she was some undercover alien. I wanted to make sure she was real and not in disguise. Could have been worse. Could have thought she was a demon and threw salt on her. By the way why does Tony look like he’s about to vibrate off his seat? I mean I know the girls are awesome, but they’re not seizure worthy.”

Pepper put her hand over Tony’s mouth to stop the snark fight that almost always happened when Darcy and Tony got within ten feet of each other. She immediately regretted it when Tony licked her hand, only to get him back by smacking him in the face with said hand. As he rooted through his workbench for a rag, she answered the curvy brunette, “The reason Tony seems to be vibrating is Clint fed him over caffeinated trucker coffee. As to why Tony and I were staring at Gwen is that she just gave two, possibly three ways to develop the artificial skin Tony designed for James’s arm. Idea that could only come from someone with a very deep understanding of science, since Tony never explained the formula on the screen. So she had to be able to read it, understand it, and expand on it, all in a very short time.”

“Oh, she slipped one pass the net and now you wondering if it was a fluke, she’s a corporate spy, or why someone as smart as her is working as a Personal assistant. I reserve the right to taser her if she turns out to be a spy.” Darcy said, catching the drift of the mood.

Gwen looked like she was getting ready to pitch a fit at the accusation of being a spy. She was cut off by Tony as he started speaking, “Gwendolyn Helen Stacy, genius level IQ, graduated early from Midtown Magnet Highschool, earned a Bachelors in Biology and Genetics at the same time all while interning at Oscorp in their science division. Cited as designer of cure during Lizard event at Oscorp, earned a masters in Biology and Genetics, hired as a lead researcher in science division, let go after Electro incident for undisclosed reasons, blacklisted by science community by Oscorp. Also says that you are suppose to be dead. I got to say you look very well preserved for a corpse.”

“Uh thanks? Where did you find all that? Did you hack in to Oscorp? God they’re probably going tp blame that on me too. Not like they didn’t blame everything they could before kicking me out. And why? Cause I wasn’t willing to go all evil mad scientist for them. Fire for having morals. Assholes! I mean going mad scientist is fun, it’s the evil part I could n’t do. And since I didn’t disclose this too you, I’m probably fired. Typical. I was planning on trying to finish my degree and get my doctoral in Biology and Genetics too.”

After Pepper sharing a significant look with Tony, Pepper turned to Gwen to say, “When interviewed you for this position, I knew you had a genius level intellect and half a semester of school left. I didn’t know it was to get your doctoral in two majors. If I had this information when I hired you, I probably wouldn’t have hired you as my Personal assistant. It explains why I’ve been feeling like something is off, that you’re not suited for this position.”

“Are, are you firing me? I promise I can get better. Please I need this job.” asked a shocked Gwen. Even Darcy was taken aback at Pepper’s actions.

“Yes Gwen I am firing you as my assistant. Sorry I promise to give you a glowing reference to your next boss.”

“Ha, thanks. Who going to hire me after being shitcanned by Oscorp and the CEO of Stark industries? Who huh?” the young woman asked as her eyes teared up.

“I will. Even give you a bonus for pissing off Oscorp and a pay raise for having to deal with me. You be my Personal assistant, or at least until you finish your two doctoral degrees and then I’m going to hire you as a full fledged member of the growing Science Family we got going on down here. We mad scientists got to stick together.” interjected Tony as he sat on his stool fiddling with the prototype on his worktable.

As Gwen first gaped, then excitedly accepted Tony’s offer, stating it was more then she had ever dreamed of, Darcy sidled up to Pepper, saying “You guys are mean. Was that really necessary? You freaked the poor girl out with the whole firing thing, you could have just transferred her down here couldn’t you?”

“Actually, no I couldn’t. In the contract for the CEO Personal assistant position, in order to leave, you either have to give a month’s notice, transfer with the board’s approval, or get fired. Those were all put in when I was Tony’s Personal assistant since he was such a pain in the ass. He had that all added so if he screwed up really big, he’d have a chance to convince me to stay and not quit. As for Gwen it would have been difficult to get the board to approve a relative unknown to be so close to the owner, so it was easiest to just fire her. No body tells Tony who he can hire or not hire.”

Upon hearing the explanation of what had just occurred, Gwen asked Pepper, “How did you know he wanted to hire me?”

“Knew it as soon as you started talking about the artificial skin. When he looked up your credentials and after the look we shared, where his eyes were practically begging to keep you, was the real clincher though. But now that is settled, I have to find myself a new Personal assistant since Tony just stole mine. Ugh, I just got done with all that. Half the applicants just want to meet the Avengers, others are like what Darcy thought earlier, spies to try to make a quick buck in selling some secret. The rest are a bunch of pretentious rich kids who want to be able to brag that they work at Stark Industries. It really take a certain type of person to handle the position. J.A.R.V.I.S. you better order a case of my favorite wine so I can deal with this. I can feel the headache coming on already.” Pepper said to Gwen before throwing herself in a chair and ending up with her head tilted bad looking at the ceiling.

Pepper’s dark mood almost instantly disappeared when Darcy started talking, “How about I be personal assistant? I’ve already met the avenger, in fact I live with them. I’d taser anyone who even thought to steal from you and Tony. The only people I’d brag to is a scientist who works for you already and a god from Asgard. Plus I already know how to be an assistant so bonus.”

Pepper was excited that answer to her problem was so easy, she only saw one problem with the whole thing. “That’s all well and good, but aren’t you Jane’s lab assistant? Won’t she have a problem with you quitting on her?”

“It won’t be a problem. I mean back when we were in the desert, when our equipment was held together with duct tape and hope, yeah she needed me. I helped her then and when we had the whole evil space elf invasion, but since we came to the tower and Tony started to build her equipment to last and gave Jane her own lab and minions to terrorize, I’ve slipped more into being just her friend. I have a Masters in Political Science, not actually science. I just hang out with Thor and watch Netflix on my laptop. Frankly I’m kind of bored, so hell yeah I’d like to do something of use. If you don’t believe me about Jane, lets go ask her. Five bucks says she hugs me and wishes me good luck before telling me to get the fuck out of her lab and not to touch anything.”

With a skeptical look on her face Pepper motioned for Darcy to lead the way as the left Tony and Gwen babbling in science talk. They got on the elevator and rode it up a couple of floors to where Jane’s lab as located. They walked in to find Jane carefully turning a dial on a piece of equipment only to smack it with a wrench when it wouldn’t set right. As they reached her, the machine in question gave off a different tone and with a satisfied nod Jane stepped back. When she turned around and saw Pepper and Darcy, she gave a little shriek of surprise, which made a poptart crumb covered Thor seem to appear out of thin air. Once they realized that there was no danger and Darcy quit laughing, Darcy explained what she and Pepper were doing there. True to her prediction, Jane hugged her, wished her good luck and booted them out of her lab. Pepper was about to comment about not being told not to touch anything when Darcy held up a hand with all five fingers extended. As they walked away, she counted down from five and as she hit zero, they heard Jane throw out to not touch anything on their way out. When they entered the elevator, Pepper handed Darcy a five dollar bill with a smile and a shake of her head. Darcy just snapped the bill a couple times and stuffed it in her pocket.

As they rode the elevator down to the secure underground walkway that connected the Stark industries corporate offices with Avengers tower, Darcy suddenly asked if what she was wearing was appropriate for being a personal assistant. When Pepper took a good look at Darcy’s flowing peasant blouse and faded blue jeans with sandals, she admitted that it was comfortable looking but really business attire. Darcy then started to fret as she said, “I’m going to have to buy an entire new wardrobe for this job and it was going to be a bitch finding professional looking attire that fit on my curvy figure. Also its going to kill my bank account to buy all that.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll take you shopping tomorrow. It will be fun and Tony can pay since he stole my personal assistant. The least he can do is outfit my new one with a new wardrobe. Maybe we can see if Natasha, Betty, Skye, Jemma, May and Jane want to go. We’ll make a girls day of it.” Pepper said.

When Darcy nodded in agreement, Pepper had J.A.R.V.I.S. extend invitations to all the afore mentioned ladies, only to quickly add in Maria Hill when she remembered her. Once they arrived in Pepper’s office, they had received confirmations from all the women with them all saying it would be nice to get out and enjoy a day of relaxation.

After those plans were made, Pepper sat down with Darcy to explain what she expected in her personal assistant. After listening to her, Darcy said she could handle whatever Pepper wanted, it had to be easier than making sure Jane didn’t die, the data was inputted in time for grant applications, making sure Jane ate, pretty much running and supporting Jane’s life so she could science her pretty little off. Pepper laughed at that, saying she could relate, only she had to deal with a bratty CEO and playboy on top of all that. Pepper was starting to think that Darcy was going to be a perfect fit as her personal assistant. She then sent Darcy down to get a security badge for the corporate offices.

As Pepper started to overlooking a several tentative plans of how to handle having the Winter Soldier living with them, she was treated to a surprise when a new document pop up on her screen with a very well thought out solid plan to sway public opinion to see the Winter Soldier as a victim and not as bogeyman of HYDRA. The plan called for J.A.R.V.I.S. to leak some facts from anonymous sources so it would be out there for when the Winter Soldier was found out. It also called for the reveal of the Winter Soldier’s real identity so people could put a face to man, while also leaking he was rumored to be Captain America’s long lost best friend. Select release of some of the most brutal things done to him would be done only to be taken down, which would only fuel to need to know what had happen to him. With the right spin and timing, they could make Bucky a martyr if the government ever came for him.

On the legal side of the plan, they would document his progress in recovering from the conditioning and brainwashing that was done to him. They would also provide details in a closed chamber meeting with a judge if need be so that the information didn’t get out. Also include the torture and the procedure they used to attach his arm. Include scans Tony and Bruce did to show how it was attached with minimal care to pain or long term well being, only functionality. Prove HYDRA only cared about how useful he was as a weapon and not a person.  
Have records researched for any and all signs of him fighting the programing while in HYDRA custody and trying to escape. Include details of kill switches he had implanted into his body as way of control.

Pepper was absolutely blown away by the with the perfection of the plan. If it was pulled off according to the way it was written, anyone who came after James from the government would make themselves a hated pariah and kill any career they had. Pepper checked to see who in PR had came up with the idea, quickly finding that there was no document code that anything written in the offices got so that it could be tracked if a security breach occurred. As she pondered where the plan had come from, Darcy arrived back from getting new security badge. When she stepped over to Pepper’s desk to see if she could do anything for her, she happened to glance at her computer screen, giving a surprised gasp.

“What’s wrong?” asked Pepper looking at her new assistant, noticing where she was looking, “Darcy do you know what this is? Have you seen it before?”

“Uh yeah I’ve seen it before. I wrote it the other day when I couldn’t find anything to watch and got bored watching Thor moon over Jane. I got to thinking how I’d make sure Captain America got to keep his best friend after doing all he did to find him. I thought of how I’d sway the public to rally around James Barnes instead of trying to tear down the Winter Soldier. Why? How did you get it?” answered Darcy, wondering what her hobby was doing in Pepper’s hands.

“It popped up on my screen and I started to read it. I was blown away with how brilliant it was. In fact I’m going to proceed to implement this plan as is, to be tweaked as needed to produce as positive outcome as we can. If you think of something like this again, I want you to bring it to my attention immediately.”

“Ok, I will. Still would like to know how you ended up with it.” pondered Darcy.

“I’m afraid the blame for showing Ms Potts your plans rest with me, Ms Lewis.” answered J.A.R.V.I.S.

“Why did you show it to me J.A.R.V.I.S.?” asked Pepper.

“It was the best plan to date and I thought that it was vital that you should see it as I have already proceeded with my part of the plan. I have managed to institute a 5% increase in positive opinion of Mr Barnes. With the entire plan in motion, I predict a 97% percent chance in keeping Mr Barnes from incarceration and blame in HYDRA operation.” J.A.R.V.I.S. informed them.

Both Pepper and Darcy were stunned at J.A.R.V.I.S.’s prediction. Darcy was the first to recover, saying, “Holy shit. That’s great. Wow I rock. Go Operation Save Barnes. I wonder if Operation Green Playdate would work too? Aw, I’ll keep working on that one.”

Pepper started to write emails to the lawyers she had hired to help with keeping James out of prison, calling the PR department to start work on the sharing of information about the Winter Soldier and the man behind the name. She sent Darcy out to her desk to field calls to the office and to get a feel for the job. 

Pepper was finalizing some of the last details when she heard raised voices from outside her door, then a loud buzzing and a sudden thump as something hit the ground. She quickly ran to the door, flinging it open to see Darcy standing over a man in a well made suit, who was twitching on the floor. When she looked to Darcy, her new personal assistant said, “He came bursting in here demanding to talk to that bitch Potts. When I stepped in front of him and informed him you were busy and would be for the rest of the day, he told me to get my big titted slut ass out of his way. When I told him no, he asked if I knew who he was. I said no and he went to shove me out of the way, so I tasered. By the way I didn’t taser someone I shouldn’t have did I?”

As the man in question groaned and rolled over, Pepper got a good look at him and wished she could taser the man her self. She looked back at Darcy and told her, “You tasered Justin Hammer. He’s CEO of Hammer industries, a former competitor from when we used to make weapons. They tried to build their own version of the Ironman suit and sell it to the government. It literally blew up in their faces. He blames Tony for ruining him, so he tries to sue us all the time. He also tries to bully his way in to see me to demand that we stop destroying his company when he gets drunk. My other personal assistants usually just ran in ahead of him, locked the door and called for security. Good job of taking care of it yourself. Call security and have them dump his ass outside. Then have them track down how he got in here again. If someone is helping him, have them escorted out too.”

“You got it boss lady! Get rid of the trash and track down why it keeps showing up, check.” Darcy said as she gave Pepper a sharp salute as she reached for the phone to call security. As Pepper returned to her office, she heard Darcy tell Hammer to sit still or she would zap him again. She smiled as she thought she got the better end of the deal with Darcy as her new personal assistant. She couldn’t wait to rub it in Tony’s face tonight.

 

Just after Pepper and Darcy left

“So Gwendolyn, you want to help me finish this prototype? There are lab coats in the corner if you don’t want to ruin your clothes. You can dress in whatever you feel most comfortable to do science starting tomorrow” Tony said to his new assistant.

Gwen narrowed her eyes, saying , “Call me Gwendolyn again and you’ll need that prototype. Call me Gwen. I’ll be right back with a lab coat and I’ll help you finish your prototype so that we can get the plans to Ms Potts. 

Tony laughed and said, “I think I’m going to like you. I’m definitely voting to adopt you into the Science Family. I think Bruce and Betty would like you too. Now lets finish this prototype and then you can walk me through your ideas for the artificial skin. Ok?”

Gwen just nodded as she walked back up, buttoning up her lab coat. She was already planning to show up in more comfortable clothes the next day. She and Tony set to work finishing the prototype Tony was building to send to the tech department so they would have a model to refer to when he sent the plans to them. In almost no time at all they had the prototype finished and sent off to the tech department with J.A.R.V.I.S. transferring the overall plans to the tech servers.

Tony then invited Gwen to expand in her ideas about the artificial skin. As she started to talk about how she thought the skin could be modified to maybe give simple feedback to help the user or maybe just for the cosmetic effect of having a closely matching limb. As she looked up to see what Tony thought, he nodded in approval before he looked her in the eye and asked, “I like it. By the way why does Oscorp think you’re dead? Because I bet it’s good story. Besides my caffeine high is wearing off, I’ve been down here for three days and I’m hungry. Let’s go raid the kitchen and you can tell me how you died.”

Gwen had to shoot out of her chair to follow Tony as he headed out the lab. She caught up to him at the elevator as he stepped on and motioned for her to join him. Gwen tried to not start fangirling when she thought about possibly meet some of the Avengers, which drew her up short when she realized she was now a personal assistant to a Avenger. She kept telling herself to chill out, she could handle this. Besides she was the girlfriend to a hero dammit, this was no big deal. That then started her to thinking about how Peter was going to react when she told him about what happened. He was going to flip out, he practically worshiped Tony Stark and the Avengers. Maybe she could get Dr. Banner’s autograph as well as Tony’s. 

Gwen was jolted out of her thoughts as they arrived on the communal floor of the tower. She stared at two people sitting on a couch watching what looked like a nature show on birds. The woman as a stunning redhead while they man was a little hard to describe as he was laying with his head in the woman’s lap with a large ice bag on the side of his head. Tony asked “What happened to the birdbrain?

“Pepper had J.A.R.V.I.S. inform me that Clint fed you trucker coffee and I might have smacked him in the head a little too hard.” answered the redhead.

“How hard is too hard?” Tony asked in return.

“Hard enough to knock him out for about an hour. Right now he’s faking while I let him lay in my lap and watch a show about birds as way of apology of hitting him like that.” said the redhead.

Tony laughed as the man in question grinned from the woman’s lap. Tony then introduced Gwen to the two informing her that they were Clint and Natasha. It took a moment for her to realize they were Hawkeye and Black Widow. Natasha gave her a small smile to show she knew Gwen had just figured out who they were. Clint when with being an ass as usual, saying “Does Pepper know you’re cheating on her with a blonde teenager?”

“Haha, funny Tweety. I’d like to introduce Gwen Stacy, Pepper’s former personal assistant and now mine. Turns out she is a scientific genius and Pepper let me keep her. When she finishes her Doctorals I’m going to hire as a full fledged scientist and give her own lab.” Tony snarked back as he poured a mug of coffee.

“So she going to have to work with you all the time till she graduates?” Clint asked Tony, who nodded. He then turned to Gwen, asking “You think you can survive being around Tony for that long? He blows up his lab a lot.”

“I think I can make it another four months.” Gwen answered with a smirk. 

Both spysassians blinked in surprise at her answer, realizing Tony had found another genius to surround himself with. He was like a bloodhound the way he sniffed them out. 

Tony splashed hot coffee on himself when he laughed at the look on Natasha and Clint’s faces when Gwen quipped how long she had to go for her doctorals. It took a lot to surprise the two of them. As he walked back towards the others, he spoke to Gwen, “Now that you have done the impossible by surprising Blackhawk over there, maybe you would be so kind to explain why Oscorp has in their records that you are dead? Cause that has to be a hell of a story since you’re standing our living room.” Natasha cocked up an eyebrow at Tony’s question while Clint’s arm shot out with remote ane turned off the tv to better hear the story. 

Gwen huffed out a breath in resignation before starting, “Do you guys remember the Electro incident that happened a few months ago?” After getting nods from the others, she continued with her story, “I was working for Oscorp at the time and discovered that Electro was a employee by the name of Maxwell Dillon, am electrical engineer that fell into a tank of genetically modified electric eels. Somehow he didn’t die from the exposure and became a being of pure bio-electrical energy. When I found this information and brought it to my superiors attention, I was told they were taking care of it. I naively believed that they were doing just that. When Electro attacked Spiderman in Times Square and was captured, I found out that Oscorp was holding Electro hostage and experimenting on him, while they erased all evidence of his employment from their computers. Only problem is I knew about it and they were willing to kill to hide their crimes. I was able to get out of the building and evade their goons. Meanwhile Electro escaped and broke in to a power plant to supercharge his powers so he could kill Spiderman. I wanted to try to help Electro since the accident wasn’t his fault, but he didn’t want help, the experiments they did to him warped his mind. So I teamed up with Spiderman to stop him by building a giant electromagnet to drain off his power. Just as we succeeded, the Green Goblin showed up to fight Spiderman, he grabbed me to use as a hostage, which I fought and ended up falling through a skylight in an old clock tower. Spiderman disabled the Goblin’s glider long enough to grab me with a web-line just as I reached the floor. I hit my head on the floor which knocked me out. I guess Spiderman got rid of the Goblin and got me to a hospital, because the next thing I remember is waking up a week later and being told I had been handed to a nurse on a smoke break and rushed into surgery. I had cracked my skull and had a brain bruise that caused a coma. When the authorities asked what happened to me I told them everything, after which they thought it would be best that I let Oscorp keep believing I was dead. Since I didn’t have any physical proof, they couldn’t bring a case against them without getting shredded by their lawyers. So I decided to find a new job in a unrelated field and try to get on with my life. That’s how I came to be Pepper’s personal assistant. I was surprised to get the job. I didn’t even have close the right skills for it.”

The others sat taking in the information, impressed at the young woman’s story. After a few moments to let Gwen’s shoulder relax after relating such a draining story, Natasha asked her, “So Gwen, how long have you been dating Spiderman?” Gwen started sputtering, denying that she was doing any such thing. Clint just shook his head as Tony looked confused as her looked between the two women. Clint then said, “You might as well give it up, Natasha is a expert at reading body language and extracting information from nonverbal cues. To her you might as well wrote it across the sky. If you had told this story to anyone else but her, it wouldn’t be a problem. I had my suspicions, but that’s from spending so much time with her.”

“Besides we have been trying to figure out why he has been fixated on the tower lately. He has started to patrol the area around here a little more heavily. At first we thought he was just a fan of the team or one of the members. But he never seemed to fixate on our coming and goings, or try to come meet one of us. In fact he seems to run away when approached by us, according to Captain America and Falcon. Cap thought he was being tracked and because of HYDRA, he tried to get the drop on the tail. Once he realized that it was Spiderman, he tried to talk to him, to offer our help if he ever needed it. Falcon spotted him another time when he was out flying. He tried to land on the same roof, but Spiderman took off and lost Falcon in the maze of buildings, which is an accomplishment since Tony made those wings fast and maneuverable as hell.” explain Natasha, as she stared at the young woman, daring her to deny her statement.

Gwen sighed and stood up as she said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Like Spiderman would date someone like me. What is so funny?” she asked when Tony and Clint started laughing, while Natasha grinned like the cat that stole the cream. Tony motioned for her to turn around. When she did, she saw security footage of her from Pepper’s office. In it she can be seen shooing Spiderman away on the other side of the window. Spiderman keeps making over exaggerated kissy faces and signs of love, only to drop out of sight when Pepper enters the room. The tv then switched to another of Spiderman watching Gwen while she works, only to keep switching showing many more incidents. Gwen just dropped her head into her hands, cursing her boyfriend for crawling all over one of the most technologically advanced building in the world and blowing their carefully planned strategy to keep her safe to bits. When she looked up, Natasha tilted her head in her direction wondering if she was going to bother trying to deny it anymore.

Gwen then squared her shoulders before taking a deep breath to say, “Yes I’m dating Spiderman. No I won’t tell you who he is. No I won’t help trick him to let you catch him. If you want to fire me because I won’t betray him, I can be gone in no time. Wow, I feels like weight has been lifted off of me by telling you that. Still not tell anything.”

Tony looked at her like she had grown two heads, before saying, “Fire you? Why? I respect that you have that kind of loyalty. No one is trying to get you to betray him. In fact we want you to help us. We want you to pass along a message that we are offering to help if he ever needs us, without having to reveal his identity if he so chooses. We could also offer to help him train and develop his skills if he wants. Also if he knows any other, for lack of a better term no offence, street level heros that would also take advantage of the offer, have him spread the word. We are the last people to deny someone the right to do some good, we just want to provide them the best basis to do that. And if any of you ever tell anyone that I just gave a Captain America speech, I will hurt you. That means you Feathers.”

“Really? You don’t want to catch him? Try to figure out how his powers work? That’s what most scientists want to do when they try to meet him. Had a lot of problems with some guys named Pierce and Rumlow from SHIELD trying to catch him. Had another named Fury offer help like you guys.” asked Gwen, hoping she was trusting the right people with this. 

“Well Fury was director of SHIELD, him you could of trusted. Pierce and Rumlow were in SHIELD, but turned out to actually be part of HYDRA. Spiderman did good to stay away from them. HYDRA would have probably experimented on him ruthlessly to figure out his powers and try to replicate them.” answered Natasha, making a tight fist in anger at the betrayal she still felt. 

Tony took up where Natasha stopped, “Gwen all we want is to meet him and offer our help if he wants it. I understand the want and need to do what he’s doing on his own. But its also nice to know you have back up if you need it if you run into a situation where you find yourself in over your head. Who knows? Maybe we’ll offer him a spot on the team in the future. Natasha might decide she wants to be a momma spider to his baby spider and adopt him.” As soon as the words left his mouth, he found a knife quivering between his legs stuck in the chair. Clint fell over on the couch in laughter, as Tony clutched the arms of the chair trying to keep as far as possible from the knife. When Tony looked at Natasha, she raised an eyebrow making him say he wouldn’t do it again, after which she reached over and retrieved the knife. 

Gwen took in all that they had said and took a leap of faith. The Avengers had done nothing but try to help and she would feel better if Peter had some help if he needed it. Besides he didn’t have to reveal his identity, just talk to them. Deciding to trust them at their word, she reached up and pressed the beacon Peter had made into a pendent she could wear so he could find her if she was in trouble. Then she pressed it again to turn it off so he knew it was important but not an emergency, so he wouldn’t come flying in attacking first and asking questions later. 

After giving Natasha a dirty look, Tony turned back to Gwen to talk to her more about trying to convince Spiderman to meet with them, only to be cut off as he opened his mouth as she started to speak, “I’m taking a huge leap of faith right now. I just signaled him that I need to talk with him and he is probably on his way here now. I’m going to step out on the balcony so that I can talk to him and tell him what you are offering.” Tony just nodded, trying to figure out how she had signaled Spiderman without them noticing.

After Gwen had stepped out on the balcony, Natasha pointed to her neck and said, “Pendent.” When Tony looked at her in confusion, she said, “You’re wondering how she signaled him. She pressed her pendent twice. Must be some kind of device and a code they have.” Tony looked out at his new personal assistant and made a note to ask about her pendent. Then he looked up and spoke to J.A.R.V.I.S., “Hey J, did you capture any foreign signals coming from Gwen just now?”

“A signal of five seconds emitted from Ms Stacy’s pendent before being terminated. It bounced off of several cell towers before being received by a pre-paid cell phone in the Queens area. The cell phone is currently traveling towards the tower at a very rapid pace. I estimate that it will reach the tower in approximately 25 minutes. Shall I inform the other Avengers, Sir?” J.A.R.V.I.S. answered.

“See if Steve can come up here will you? Lets leave meeting Thor and the Hulk for later.” Tony told his AI.

A few moments later Steve, Sam, and Logan stepped off the elevator. When Tony asked why the other two came, Sam said that he just wanted to meet Spiderman since he had heard good thing about him. Logan said he came to see if Spiderman was a mutant and if so, to extend an offer from the Institute to help him with his powers if he needed it. He also wanted to tell him that he didn’t hold a grudge from the last time the met. When Tony expressed surprise that Logan had met Spiderman, Steve asked what happened. 

“I was in the city at a rough biker bar throwing back a few while taking some alone time away from the school. Anyways, I was walking down an alley towards my bike when some stupid gangbangers decided to make about the dumbest mistake in their lives in trying to mug me. I started kicking the shit out of them and trying to just knock em out till two things happened. One of them kicked me in the balls from behind and another shot me. Well I’ll admit that I was planning on not being as nice as I had been before. I had slashed a couple of them and cut the gun to pieces when I got a wad of webbing in the eyes. By the time I got them cleared, Spiderman was snatching the gangbangers up and taking them away. I was royally pissed and threatened to carve him up the next time I saw him.”

“Yeah that was probably not the best first impression you could have made. Could have been worse though, he could have broken his hand punching you in your thick metal skull.” Clint said, getting popped in the head by Natasha for it afterwards. The rest of them just laughed and settled in to wait for the arrival of Spiderman. 

A short time later J.A.R.V.I.S. informed them that there was a person climbing up the side of the tower. They all watched as a red spandex clad head peeked over the railing of the balcony, visibly relaxing when the its sight landed on Gwen. As she motioned for him to come on to the balcony fully, Spiderman slowly climbed over the side only to perch on the railing like he wasn’t sitting on a two inch wide piece of metal more than ninety stories up I the air. They watch as Gwen had a silent conversation with him with a lot of hand waving. They could have had J.A.R.V.I.S. broadcast the audio from the balcony, but they decided it would be better if they let the couple speak in private (Well Tony wanted to listen, but Steve and Natasha threatened to tell Pepper, which shut him up). After about fifteen minutes Gwen started to walk towards the door to come in only to turn around to point at the door and as they could clearly see her say ‘Get your spandex clad ass in there and talk to them.’ As Gwen and a skittish Spiderman walked into the living room, they could hear Gwen tell him, “And whatever happens, try to not go all full-blown fanboy in front of them. You’re a hero too.”

Tony snorted into the drink he was holding while Clint and Natasha both just grinned. Logan grunted and Sam placed his hand over his mouth to hold in the laughter. Steve swallowed a laugh, plastering a smile on his face as he stepped forward extending his hand to greet their guest. 

“Spiderman, it nice to finally meet you. Both my friend Sam and I have attempted to speak with you on previous occasions. You are a hard man to catch up with.” said Steve as he shook Spiderman’s suit covered hand, noting that he wasn’t a very big guy but he had a strong grip. 

“Yeah, I’d apologize for that but I didn’t know you were Captain America when you came after me. All I saw was a very agile guy who I had watched run at a pace that would kill a normal person scaling the building I was on. That usually means trouble. As to your friend with the wings, I wasn’t aware he was an Avenger at the time. So all I saw was a guy with wings chasing me. Don’t know if you heard but I have an enemy with wings, I was in defense mode on the spot, not really in a position to tell them apart.” Spiderman said as he looked around the room at everyone there, giving a small start at see Logan there. Logan just chuckled and told him that there was no hard feelings, he was glad Spiderman had stopped him from killing those gangbangers. Maybe he had scared some of them straight.

Spiderman sighed, “I’m glad. After seeing you in action, I really don’t thing I could survive being on your bad side. People there seem to become unalive on a regular basis. Any ways, Gwen told me that you wanted to talk to me about helping me. Thanks but I stay solo to protect those I care about. I heard you figured out Gwen and I are dating. I’m sure I can trust you guys, since you’re the Avengers and all, but I others I have to protect. I don’t think I can do that if I’m seen with such visible heros. So I’m going to decline.”

“Ok. That’s up to you. The offer will be there if you ever want to take advantage of it. Here take this. It is an earwig communicator should you ever need to call for help. It will connect you to J.A.R.V.I.S., who will alert us to your need of assistance.” replied Steve, handing Spiderman a small concealable case.

As Spiderman stepped forward to take the case, Natasha whipped a concealed dart at Spiderman. He snatched it out of the air while everyone else went still. Spiderman turned his head to look at the red haired assassin. Before he could speak she said, “I had heard you processed a built in danger sense. Let me ask you, has it ever failed you? Lead you astray?”

“No, it hasn’t failed me at all. It senses when I’m in danger all the time. Me catching your dart is proof of that.” countered Spiderman.

“Yes you caught my dart. But it was never the danger you had to look out for. He was.” answered back Natasha. 

“Who are yo- oof. What the hell was that? I didn’t sense you at all.” said Spiderman as Clint clipped him in the ear.

“That’s because I wasn’t truly trying to harm you. Just give you a love tap to teach you a lesson.” answered as he walked back to Natasha’s side. “The point my lovely wife is trying to make is, if you rely on you danger sense only, there might come a time you get blindsided because an enemy can conceal his intent from you. Of you trained with us, we could make you nigh on unbeatable. As it stands now, Natasha could beat you in your untrained state.”

Spiderman scoffed, not believing what the two spysassians were saying. As they held is gaze, he started to wonder if they weren’t telling the truth by the way they never wavered their eyes like they were uncertain of their claims.

“Yeah, ok whatever. Think I’ll be going now. Gwen I’ll see you later ok?” a spooked Spiderman said as he backed toward he balcony door. Just before he slipped out the door, Tony cleared his throat to get his attention, saying, “Before you go, take this with you. You can read it later. Just tell me if anything in there interests you ok?” as he walked forward to hand Spiderman a medium size manila envelope. Spiderman tucked it into the waistband of his before stepping out the door to dive off the side of the tower.

As Tony walked back to the bar for his drink, Steve asked, “What was with the dart Natasha? And you Clint, we were trying to help him, not embarrass him. If I had to guess from looking at him, I’d say he was still a teenager. If I remember correctly, teenagers don’t react well to being embarrassed like that. We’ll be lucky if we ever hear from him now.”

Gwen stepped forwards saying, “Actually, by show him that there is something he doesn’t know is just going to drive him to learn it. They just proved that they could back up what they said to him. I’ve never seen anyone sneak up on him like that since he got his powers. That alone is going to drive him crazy.”

“Don’t worry. Spiderman will be back. I can guarantee it.” Tony inputted fro the bar.

“How can you do that?” asked Steve.

“Simple. I handed him plans for a new suit made out of a more protective material and a contract to an internship under his real name. He’ll be back just to find out how I figured it out.” answered Tony, stunning the entire room as he sipped his drink as he breezed towards the elevator to head to his floor. Pepper was about off and he wanted to meet her to let her know what had happened. 

 

That night both Tony and Pepper swore they got the better end of the deal in the personal assistant swap that happened. They finally agreed that they both came out pretty well and that they both rocked.


	12. Chapter 11

A very agitated Peter Parker was making a third lap around the block Avengers tower and Stark Industries was located on. He was try to talk himself into going inside the tower, to see Tony Stark. Tony Stark, the man who apparently knew his secret identity and offered him a internship in said name. Who according to his girlfriend, knows Peter’s name but has not told anyone else. On one hand Tony Stark knew who he was! The genius inventor Peter looked up to was aware of his existence. Peter wanted to fanboy so hard about that fact. But on the other hand, Tony Stark knew who he was, about both of his identities. Peter kept his identity secret to protect Aunt May and Gwen. Could he trust Tony with that information? The debate in his head was driving him insane.

So that probably why he almost walked into the black man in the military uniform that was walking into the tower. “Oh shit. Excuse me, I was just thinking and wasn’t watching where I was going.”

“It’s ok son. I can recognize when someone has a lot on their mind. Since your doing your thinking in front of Avengers tower and the look on your face, I’d say Tony Stark is involved somehow.” replied the officer.

“Wha-how did you know that? I mean, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” sputtered Peter.

“Yeah. Tony is definitely involved. Want some help dealing with him?” offered the officer.

“How can you help? Last I knew, Stark doesn’t work with the military anymore. Wouldn’t having you help be a problem?” asked Peter, as they both entered the tower lobby.

“Well, you’re right Tony doesn’t deal with the military anymore. I’m the exception to the rule.” the officer told him.

“Oh yeah. Why’s that?” shot back Peter.

“Because he’s my oldest, best friend, James ‘Rhodey’ Rhodes.” they heard from the direction of the elevators, seeing Tony standing leaning against the open door of an elevator.

“Hello Tony. Its been too long man.” Rhodey striding up to his friend, the two of them meeting in a back slapping hug. 

“It’s great to see you too, Rhodey. What brings you to New York? Did the military send you to try and talk me into building weapons again? Because the answer is still no. Well except for any you need. You can have whatever you want.” a grinning Tony said.

“Got it in one. Aw hell I know it’s a waste of a trip, but it gets me a free trip to New York on the military’s dime. Plus I wanted to congratulate you for finally making an honest woman out of Pepper. Also yes I'll be your best man. Thanks for asking.” replied Rhodey. 

“Thanks man. I couldn’t imagine my life without her now. Just wish I’d had the guts to do it sooner. I wasted too many years denying what I wanted. Pretty stupid for a genius.” Tony said. 

“Hey you said it, not me.” Rhodey laughed out.

The two friends both laughed at that before turning to look at the confused teenager. Before either one of them could say anything, Peter asked, “If he’s in the military, why is he the exception to the rule? What makes him so special?”

“Ever heard of Warmachine?” asked Tony. At Peter’s nod, he said, “Rhodey here is Warmachine. That’s why.”

At that revelation, instead of the shocked open mouth face they thought they would get from the teen, Peter launched into a series of questions about the differences in the two suits of armor, their armaments and combat capabilities. 

While Peter was going glassy eyed at meeting Tony Stark in person and finding out the pilot of Warmachine, slowly sliding into fanboy mind set, Rhodey leaned over and asked, “So what is the story with the kid? He had lapped the building at least twice, working up the nerve to come in here. So the question is, what did you do to scare him yet make it worth him coming here?”

Tony sighed, looking at his friend, “Rhodey I wish I could tell you. But I promised not to reveal certain things that are not mine to tell. Maybe in the future if my meeting with him goes as planned. All I can say is he is a very special kid. Now are you staying or do you got to get back to D.C.?”

“Unfortunately I have to get back. My orders were to come right back if I couldn’t talk you in to returning to weapon manufacturing. Though I thought I’d stop in and say hi to Pepper before I go. Maybe we can get together some weekend if you’re not out saving the world.” answered Rhodey.

“You’re on. Have a safe trip.” Tony said as he shook his friend’s hand. As Rhodey walked away towards the doors, Tony turned to a staring Peter, who was getting his fanboying under control. “So you ready to talk about some things? I assume so since you’re here.”

At the mention of the things that Peter and Tony need to talk about, Peter suddenly got paranoid, knowing Tony knew about him being Spiderman. “Since I’m here, I guess all the Avengers are going to know who I am now. Kind of a dick move you pulled since I wanted to keep my identity a secret. Guess you get what you want no matter what.”

Tony grinned, already liking the kid for his snark. He put his arm around Peter’s shoulders, leading him on to the elevator as he said, “Actually you were already going to be selected to be an intern here at Stark Industries. We search out candidates for the positions, people that are exceptional. In the research of you, it was discovered that you had a girlfriend by the name of Gwen Stacy. Now imagine my surprise when said girlfriend not only becomes my new personal assistant, but ends up admitting to being Spiderman’s girlfriend. So no the rest of the Avengers do not know your identity. It was just a set of very strange circumstances that led me to find out. I was going to ask Gwen to deliver the invitation to the internship before any of the other stuff happened. I will admit I got a kick out of giving it to before you left the other day. Just imagining the look on your face when you opened the envelope kept me laughing the rest of the night.”

Peter looked at the older man, utter shock on his face. “You have got to be kidding me. I’ve been racking my brain trying to figure out how I slipped up and reveled myself and it turns out to be a coincidence that outs my identity? I am such a dork.” he said as he turned and started to knock his forehead against the wall of the elevator.

Shaking his head and grinning, Tony reached over and put his hand between the wall and the teen’s head. “Hey you’re a superhero, weird shit happens to us all the time. The key is learning to roll with it before it drives us to go supervillain. Not that Pepper would ever let me get that far. Just her threatening to withhold sex is enough to get me on the straight and narrow.” Tony started laughing at the shocked look Peter was sporting after listening to Tony talk.

The rest of the elevator ride occurred with Tony laughing and Peter trying not to think of Tony Stark’s love life. Once they reached the floor with Tony’s lab, he lead Peter into a fairly clean area where they could sit to talk about the internship Peter was being offered, which in reality lasted about ten minutes.

Looking unusually serious, Tony started talking, “Ok you know what, you’re smart and we want you here at Stark Industries. Question is do you want to be an intern here. I will tell you that most of the people that intern here do go on to be offered jobs afterwards. You also have the added benefit of being offered support by the Avengers as Spiderman if you want. Black Widow and Hawkeye particularly want to get their hands on you to train you. But that’s if you want it. What do you say?” 

Before Peter could open his mouth to answer, his girlfriend Gwen came bursting on to the scene. “I’m sorry for interrupting, but Peter you need to come with me right now. Aunt May had a heart attack. I just got a call from Mount Sinai that she collapsed while shopping.”

Peter quickly stood up, ripping his shirt open to reveal the Spiderman suit under his clothes. Before he got very far, Tony placed a hand on his arm, “I can get you there faster in the Quinjet. Let’s go, J.A.R.V.I.S. have Clint meet us in the hanger and clear us a flight plan to the hospital.” order Tony as he led the other two to the elevators to head for the hanger.

As they arrived in the hanger, they could hear Clint going through a quick pre flight checklist and requesting flight clearance for the busy New York sky. As they sat down in the seats the jet started to lift off as the backdoor closed. In just over five minutes they were landing on the helicopter pad on the roof of the hospital. As Peter and Gwen ran off the jet, they were surprised to find Tony was following them. As the three of them reached the door inside the jet lifted off to make room for any emergency flights that might need it. Once inside Peter asked Tony as they rushed down the stairs why he was there. Tony answered, “I never got an answer to my question. Besides I’d like to meet the person that would make you run out on the great Tony Stark.”

Gwen laughed and Peter just shook his head as they reached a set of elevators to head to emergency room. Once on the elevator, they were surprised when Tony pushed the button for ICU, not for the emergency room. When he noticed their looks, he shrugged and said J.A.R.V.I.S. hack the computer system and told him that Aunt May had already been given a room in ICU. Once the reached the right floor, Peter and Gwen rushed to the nurses station to find out the room Aunt May was in, only for Tony to grab both of them as he walked by headed in for the room. Once there, he pushed them into the room as he stayed outside. Peter slowly walked towards the bed to see his aunt laying I the bed, looking peaceful. Fearing the worst he reached out to feel her pulse, finding it surprisedly strong for someone who had a heart attack. As he took another look at his aunt, her hand sprang up locking around his wrist. Peter immediately yanked his arm back realizing that this wasn’t his aunt, yelling, “Run Gwen, this isn’t aunt May.” As he tried to break the seemly unbreakable grip the woman impersonating his aunt had, who was trying to place some kind of collar around his neck, he was astonished when she was pinned to the wall with an arrow. What happened next blew him away as the woman detached from the pinned arm, turned and ran through the window, throwing herself to her death as she yelled “HAIL HYDRA!” 

“Ok, I’ll admit that is not what I thought would happen when I shot her.” said Clint as he dropped down from where he hung upside down from a vent in the ceiling. Peter just nodded as he pulled the arm with the arrow still in it off the wall, only to quickly turn to run out of the room as he remembered that he sent Gwen out of the room, possibly in to danger. As he and Clint reached the door, they quickly discovered they worried for nothing, since Tony was standing in the middle of the hall in full Ironman glory. Though he was most likely looking at a bill for the huge hole the suit made in the wall. Peter found Gwen sitting on the floor, talking to the real aunt May, saying, “Yes, Mrs. Parker, he is the real god of thunder. Please just go with him, its important. Yes we’re fine. Alright we’ll see you at Avengers tower. Yes, I know we have some explaining to do.” As she hung up, she looked up to Peter as she said, “Is it wrong I’d rather go though what happened just now again then have to explain to aunt May why Thor is taking her to Avengers tower and how this all came about?”

Peter just shook his head in answer as he helped his girlfriend to her feet. As he turned back to the two men with them, he realized something. “Hey Hawkeye, weren’t you flying the jet? How did you end up in a vent in the ceiling of that room?”

Clint just shrugged, saying, “Something didn’t feel right, so I put the jet on autopilot and rappelled down to keep an eye on things. As to the vent, I like crawling around in them what can I say. Now lets get out of here before something else happens. By the way can’t you just rip that thing off?” he asked, pointing at the disembodied arm locked on Peter’s wrist.

Peter just shook his head as they trotted down the hallway and up the stairs, not trusting the elevator at the moment. They quickly reached the helicopter pad, the jet just landing as the opened the door outside. Clint, Peter and Gwen ran on to the jet as Tony kept guard while the jet was taking off. Once they were on their way, Tony flew along side them keeping an eye out just in case.

They all quickly arrived in the hanger of the tower, Clint touching down and Tony stripping the armor off as he walked in further in the building. As they regrouped together at the rear of the Quinjet they were met with FitzSimmons stepping off the elevator pushing a wheeled table so they could detach the metal arm from Peter’s wrist. In less than two minutes the two scientists were already back o their way down to the labs to analyze the newest version of Cybertek equipment. As he watched them leave, Tony commented, “I swear those two share one super genius brain. I’m glad I adopted them into the Science Family. Hopefully they can find some info from the arm. Now shall we head down to watch Parker here try to explain this to his aunt?”

As Peter gave him a dirty look and the others laughed, Tony lead them on to another elevator to head down to the communal floor. Once there they found Peter’s Aunt May sitting in a chair, sipping a cup of tea, as she talked with Natasha and Bruce while the rest of the Avengers all stood around the room. Once she caught sight of her nephew, Aunt May popped up from her chair to rush toward him, asking, “Oh my gosh, Peter are you alright? What’s happening here? Why are we here in Avengers tower?”

Before he could answer, Tony smoothly answered, “It seems that since Stark Industries is offering Mr Parker here an internship, some of our enemies thought that they could use him to learn some of our secrets. Not knowing how far they would go, we thought it would be appropriate to protect you and him till we are clearer on the threat.”

“Oh, I thought it might have had to do with the fact that Peter here is Spiderman.” At her nephew’s shocked look at fact that she knew and the fact she just outed him to the Avengers, Aunt May just smiled before saying, “Peter dear, we live in a close knit neighborhood full of nosey old people. You being Spiderman was discovered pretty much as soon as you started. I just figured you would tell me when you were ready. Now maybe I can get bitchy Mrs Henderson to quit complaining about the webs in her trees and flowers.”

Once he got over the fact his aunt knew the whole time, Peter realized that the others in the room didn’t seem all that surprised at the revelation. Before he could accuse Tony, Natasha piped up that she and Clint knew because of the talk they had with Gwen a few days ago. Sam admitted that he tracked Peter home from a patrol, way up in the sky and he told Steve. Logan said he could tell by his scent due to enhanced senses. Pepper told him that Tony told her. Bruce said he knew cause Gwen slipped up while fangirling and ask for him to sign something for her boyfriend Peter. 

“Damn this feels like the worst kept secret in the world. OW!” screamed Peter as Aunt May flicked his ear. “Language. I raised you better then that.” said Aunt May with an arched brow.

Rubbing his ear as he eyed his aunt, Peter turned to Tony saying, “Well since my secret identity is moot around here, I guess I’ll take that internship and offer of help from the Avengers. So now that I’ve done that, can anyone tell me what was up with the woman that did the swan dive out a window earlier? Cause even for me, that was some freaky shit.”

As the young man dodged another swipe from his aunt, Coulson and Hill stepped off the elevator discussing something on a Starkpad. They both quickly caught everyone’s attention when Coulson said, “We believe that we have discovered what happened earlier. If most everyone here remembers, we destroyed a major cyborg producing lab a few weeks back. From info that we have been able to discover, HYDRA was not pleased. It seems that they are trying to restart that program and are trying to grab anyone they suspect of having any kind of abilities. Though in your case it seems they were trying to abduct for your budding scientific mind.”

“So until we can safely let you return home, we’d like to have you stay here. Yes, we know you can protect yourself Mr. Parker, but you have to sleep sometime and you can’t protect both Ms Stacy and your aunt at the same time. Eventually one or both would be abducted and used to force your compliance or used as bait to capture you. Trust us that we have thought out all the angles and are prepared for them.” added Hill when Coulson stopped talking.

As Peter stood there doing an impression of a dying fish, Aunt May stepped over to Tony saying, “Well, if we’re having to stay, do you have some place we can stay? Also I would very much like to be able to go home to at least pack some things.” At her statement, Steve and Sam both stepped up saying they would be more than glad to escort Peter and his aunt to retrieve their things. Tony just told them to be careful and that he would have a vehicle ready for them when they reached the garage, telling J.A.R.V.I.S. to arrange a large SUV.

While Peter and his aunt were gone, Pepper and Tony quickly had a guest apartment aired out and made ready for when they returned. Once Aunt May saw the apartment when they returned, she tried to tell them t was too much, to which Steve and Sam told her that this was nothing. They informed her that if you didn’t stop him, people ended up with entire floors to themselves. Tony only shrugged and said that if Peter became an Avenger, he’d probably will give him a floor. Aunt May just shook her head and Peter just grinned, thinking of being an Avenger. Pepper and the three men all left the aunt and nephew to settle in and returned to their own floors to call it a night.

The next morning the entire team was taken completely by surprise to be woke up by J.A.R.V.I.S. , who informed the that they were all invited to breakfast on the communal floor. When most of them arrived on the floor it was to find a mountain of pancakes and the smell of bacon in the air. There also was what appeared to be an industrial size coffee percolator bubbling away on the end of the counter. As they all sat down at the table, Aunt May came bustling out of the kitchen area carrying a huge pan of bacon and scrambled eggs. As she sat each pan down, the platters of pancakes started to swing from the counter towards the table, making everyone realize that Peter was hanging from the ceiling to stay out of the way of his aunt. Once everything was on the table, Aunt May told everyone she wanted to do something to thank them for help her and Peter, slapping Clint’s hand as he tried to sneak some bacon making Natasha grin into her coffee. After tasting her coffee and pancakes, Tony told her he wanted to hire to cook all the time, which made Thor proclaim that, “This is a feast fit to grace the tables of Asgard!”, to which everyone else agreed with him as they stuffed their faces. Aunt May just laughed until Pepper produced a Starkpad with a contract with a substantial salary that included the apartment they had just been given the night before. When the older woman looked back up to the younger, Pepper told her that they had been looking for someone to cook for them that they could trust not to poison them or let slip some of their secrets to the press or other less reputable people. Pepper also told her that she could tell that Aunt May was the type who needed something to do, that she wasn’t one to just sit around, so why not get paid for it. Aunt May just smiled as she shook her head, reaching for the stylus to sign the screen of the Starkpad. Peter just cheered, glad that he would still be able to have his aunt’s cooking. 

After breakfast was finished, Aunt May surprised everyone again when she asked who was going to help with dishes, informing them that they were all going to have to take turns, which in turn cracked up Peter as his aunt stared down some of the most powerful people on the planet with crossed arms and a tapping foot. Luckily for everyone Steve volunteered to do it this first time, though Aunt May warned she would make a schedule for everyone if they didn’t work it out between themselves. As they all walked away Clint commented, “Does anyone else feel like we just got in trouble with our Mom?”, to which Natasha said, “I don’t know, I kind of liked it. It was a nice feeling. Kind of like the feeling I got from you and Coulson when you first brought me in. Like someone actually cares about how you’re doing.” surprising everyone as they all stepped on the elevator. When she noticed, Natasha raised an eyebrow as she said, “What? I feel things. That’s allowed isn’t it?”, making everyone agree quickly, as they feared the deadly aura she was giving off, even though she was wearing a purple Hawkeye shirt and pink fluffy bunny slippers Clint had given her. Once she and Clint got off, Peter commented from the ceiling of the elevator, “How can a woman wearing bunny slippers be so scary?”, to which everyone just shrugged as Sam said “She’s the Black Widow.” Bruce added in, “Whatever you do, don’t ever make fun of the slippers.” When Peter asked “Why?”, Tony piped up with, “Because she’ll beat you with in an inch of your life with them if you do. Trust me.” as he walked off the elevator to his lab, as the rest of the elevator of people broke out in laughter.

A half an hour later when Peter entered Tony’s lab to find out what his internship was suppose to entail, he was surprised when his Spider Sense went off and even more surprised when he caught a mini marshmallow out of the air. When he looked up, he saw Tony handing Gwen a five dollar bill. At his questioning look, Gwen said, “Tony didn’t believe me when I said that no matter what he threw at you, you’d catch it, even something so nonlethal as a marshmallow.” Peter just smirked as he popped the marshmallow in his mouth, walking towards the two of them. When he reached them, before he could say anything, Tony popped up saying, “Come on, Blackhawk has requested that I bring you to the gym for training.” 

Peter thought something was up since Gwen was practically bouncing on the balls of her feet in excitement, so he asked what was up. His girlfriend said she was just excited that Peter was going to be training with actual Avengers. Still thinking something was up, he joined the other two in the elevator as the three of them rode it to the level that housed the gym and work out areas. Once there, they met Clint and Natasha at the door to one of the workout rooms. 

“Hey there. Glad you could join us. Natasha and I would like to test how well you fight. Then we can decide what kind of training you will need.” said a grinning Clint as he opened the door to the room, letting Natasha and the others go first into the room before closing the door. As soon as the door closed Natasha whipped around attacking Peter as the lights went out. Peter’s Spider Sense went crazy as soon as it went dark, sensing danger from all sides, trying to defend himself from the incoming blows from Natasha and not be hit by some kind of incoming projectiles that were being shot at him. After about three minutes the lights came back on, he was covered in bruises and tapping out from a submission hold he was in from Natasha. When he stood up, he realized that he was covered in paint from paint balls and Natasha didn’t have a spot on her. As Hawkeye walked up to the two of them, seeing Peter’s disbelieving look, he said, “Two things. One, you depend on your Spider Sense too much, so that if it is ever over stimulated you’re fucked. Two, yes Natasha is that good, not to get hit with the paintballs.” Before Peter could comment, Natasha said, “With the right training, there won’t be anyone who will be able to beat you. You’ll be able to defeat opponents many times your size, with ease.”

“Let me wash this off and I’ll think about, OK?” an exasperated Peter huffed out. 

As a grinning Gwen walked up, smearing a finger through all the paint on her boyfriend, she said, “That means he’s in. He just doesn’t like asking for help. Ahhhh, you ass!” The last yelled out as Peter grabbed her in a giant hug.

Tony just laughed as he texted Bruce and Steve, telling them he won the bet that the two spysassians would get Peter to let them train him.


	13. Chapter 12

For once everything in Avengers tower was going well. Bucky was responding well to his therapy sessions with Dr. Samson. Peter Parker was starting to enjoy his training with Hawkeye and the Black Widow. Coulson and Hill were steadily tracking down and eliminating HYDRA threats, as well as other problems that needed to be taken care of. In general, life was going damn well. Too bad it couldn’t last.

 

Steve, Sam and Bucky were out for their morning run, 15 blocks to Central Park, at which point Sam would jog through the park while Steve and Bucky ran the entire distance around the whole park. Sam once, ONCE mind you, tried to keep up with them the whole time. He passed out before they even got a quarter of the way around. And forget having them run with him on the jogging trails. A man can only hear “On your left” and “On your right” so many times before he buzzes their asses from above on his wings. So by agreement the three of them jogged together to the park before splitting up.

On this particular morning the three of them were just meeting back up to head back to the tower when a tinted window town car came screeching up I front of them, making them quickly fall into fighting positions. They were all surprised as Tony’s recently promoted head of security Happy Hogan jump out to open the rear door for Pepper Potts to climb out. As Pepper reached in the car for something, Sam quipped, “Hey Happy, I thought you were done having to drive around people. Isn’t that what the promotion was for?”

Before Happy could answer, Pepper stood back up holding Sam’s wings and Steve’s Captain America suit, shoving them at their owners as she hurriedly said, “The reason Happy is here is I needed someone I could trust absolutely. The shit has hit the fan. Right now there is a huge crowd of reporters camped on our front door. The reason being that Congress has just announced that they are charging James with war crimes for when he was in HYDRA’s power. There is a contingent of US marshals on their way to arrest him at this moment. I need Sam to fly James back to the tower before they arrive. Steve, I’m sorry, but I need you to run a distraction by going in the front door in uniform to stall for time. And before you start asking questions, I promise that I will answer them once we’re back in the tower ok?” 

The three soldiers looked at each other before rapidly following Pepper’s orders, Sam strapping on his wings and hooking Bucky into the harness while Steve used the car to change in to his uniform before jumping back out to take off towards Avengers tower at a dead run about the same time Sam took off towards the same destination. Watching the three men take off, Pepper nodded to Happy as she slid back into the car, signaling that he was to get them back to the tower as fast as possible.

When they arrived back the tower, they found that they were able to slip into the underground garage easily due to a very fired up Captain America telling the press that the charges laid against Bucky were simply bullshit in his opinion. After their safe arrival, Pepper sent Happy back to his job so that there wasn’t any surprise security breaches. She quickly stepped into the elevator to meet the rest of the people they would need before Bucky was taken into custody by US marshals. Once she arrived on the communal floors, she was met with the sight of Tony accepting Bucky’s artificial arm as he handed him what looked like a smooth topped plug for the hole in his shoulder, but was actually a device to prevent anyone from messing with the socket or try to stupidly use it against Bucky. She was also glad to see two men in suits standing to the side talking with Darcy, one of the men staring into space as his spun his long white cane on the floor as he listened while the other man jotted down notes. Pepper quickly made her way over to the two suited men as the elevator opened to revel Steve looking like he really wanted to hit something, which he almost did when he saw Tony had taken Bucky’s arm from him. Just before he went to grab Tony, Pepper barked out, “Steve, settle down! Removing James’s arm is all part of the plan we have to make sure he is found innocent.” Steve looked at her as though she had grown a second head as he asked “How is, excuse the pun, disarming Bucky going to help prove his innocence?” Pepper just cocked an eyebrow at the super soldier as she said, “If you would sit down and listen as we explained the plan, you would understand what we’re going for here. Alright, before this goes any further, just know we’ve been implementing this plan since shortly after James came to live here. We started off by secretly releasing some partial info about the Winter Soldier. We also started a rumor that he was Captain America’s long lost best friend, James Barnes. We did that to put a face to the man that was only spoken of in whispers. We then released information on what was done to him, only to erase it later. We did this to make people actively search out the information and also to make them talk about it, spreading the info even further. While J.A.R.V.I.S. was doing all that on the internet, I contacted the firm of Nelson and Murdock to prepare a iron clad defense case. We included every bit of information that we had on how James was treated, what drugs he was given, every person we could prove that had contact with him while in HYDRA custody, any times we could find he fought the programing. We also have the reports on how they replaced his arm, including a film of the procedure that Coulson just recently found in a raid of a HYDRA base buried in the base of a mountain in Germany. We will be including the scans that Tony and Bruce did where they discovered the deteriorating condition of James’s old arm and shoulder and the presence of the poison and explosive packs that were in his body. Dr. Samson has also included progress reports on James’s recovery from the metal conditioning and brainwashing. Alright any questions?”

Bucky sat there with an astonished look on his face as he started to talk, “I, I can’t even began to express how touched that I am that you even put this much effort into helping me. When I started to break the conditioning after the fall of SHIELD, the most I even hoped for was that I would discover who I was, adding later being able to connect with Steve since he seemed to know me. In my wildest dreams I never thought I would find people that would want me to even be around them, let alone help me the way you all have. I would like to express my deepest gratitude for this plan you have put together.”

Pepper smiled as she shoved Darcy forward, saying, “Actually you should be thanking Darcy here. She came up with this whole thing one day back when she was still working for Dr. Foster. Did it on a whim cause there wasn’t anything interesting on Netflix that day. The plans we drew up in our offices weren’t even half as good as hers.” “Say one fucking word and I swear I will Taser you ok? Just let me touch the abs and leer at you shirtless for awhile and we’ll call it good.” Darcy snarked out, flicking her tongue out at a wide eye Bucky. The tension was broken almost immediately when Tony snorted scotch through his nose after hearing what Darcy said and preceded to bitch about the burning in his nose.

After the laughter died down, Steve stood up, addressing Pepper, “Pepper and Darcy, I thank both of you for the concise plan you put together to help Bucky. The only concern I have is that something will happen to Bucky while in custody. HYDRA was in SHIELD. How do we know they don’t also have people in the US marshals, the facility they’ll hold him in, or the court? How are we planning on protecting him?”

“Well when he leaves here, he won’t be going alone. You will be accompanying him, clearly showing your support. We already cleared it with the marshals. As to the facility, you’ve probably noticed that Clint and Natasha aren’t here. They and FitzSimmons are already on site, covertly sweeping the site. Also as we speak, Skye is vetting any and everyone who will be in contact with James. If they even stole a piece of candy as a kid, we’ll know about it. Tony and myself will be also in attendance, staying in the house we maintain in DC since Tony likes to piss off congress. As to anything else, we’ll have to deal with it as we encounter it. Any other questions?” explained Pepper, as she read info off a Starkpad in her hand. When there were no more questions, she asked J.A.R.V.I.S. how long they had until the arrival of the US marshals. J.A.R.V.I.S. told them, “The US marshals are approximately fifteen minutes from the tower, but there seems to be someone stirring up the crowd in to a frenzy, calling for the head of the Winter Soldier.”

“I’ll take care of it. You guys just hang here and try to relax ok?” Tony said as he strolled towards the elevator, sipping a drink as he went. “And yes before you say anything, I will put down the drink before I go out there.” he tossed over his shoulder as then door opened for him.

A few minutes later they all watch Tony Stark throw open the front doors of the tower like Kuzco from the Emperor’s New Groove, making Pepper facepalm and the others laugh. In less then five minutes he had the press eating out of his hands and the crowd cheering for the Winter Soldier. As they continued to watch Tony play the press like a master, a second screen popped up showing the man had been trying to whip up the crowd into a mob slinking off down the street. Steve was about to excuse himself to follow the man when they all saw him disappear into an alley. Before anyone could jump up to track him down, a nondescript sedan pulled out as it slowly made its way back towards the tower, its window rolling down as Melinda May looked straight at a camera with a nod. “Well apparently Coulson has some questions for our troublemaker. Didn’t know he was part of the plan.” commented Steve as he sat back down. 

“Are you kidding? The moment he found out that we were trying to save Captain America’s best friend, he insisted on being involved. Although it was suppose to be more info gathering than direct involvement. So for him to send May to grab this guy must mean that there is something also at play. All I got to say is I’m glad I’m not that guy, Coulson will probably have him in tears within a half an hour.” sassed Darcy to entire room in answer.

Within a few minutes of that, a long line of law enforcement vehicles pulled up to the curb in front of Avengers tower. Uniformed police officers started pushing back the crowds and press as a group of windbreaker wearing US marshals walked stoically towards the front door. As one the entire group on the communal floor stood to walk on the elevator to meet the US marshals in the lobby of the building. Once they reached the lobby of the building, they were met with the sight of Tony entertaining the US marshals, joking with them and signing autographs as they waited. The only person not smiling was a guy off to the side who literally looked like he May have a stick up his ass. His whole demeanor just screamed deputy US attorney and he looked like he sucked on lemons to practice that pissed off look. As the group with Bucky walked forward, the man stepped in front of them as he started to drone in a nasally voice, “I’m Deputy US Attorney Whitehall. I am here to arrest the terrorist the Winter Soldier for war crimes. You will produce the criminal for incarceration by the US marshals, failure to do so-“

“Son, if you don’t mind, we all know why we’re here. Lets just get on with it, ok?” interrupted Steve, just wanting to get this over with. As the pompous official sputter in indignation, the lead US marshal stepped forward to put Bucky in cuffs, only to find a problem due to the fact that he only had one arm to cuff. Seeing no other way they put one cuff on his wrist and the other through the belt loop on the back of his pants. As they started to walk Bucky out, Steve stepped forward to follow only for the deputy US attorney to put a hand on his chest to stop him and asked him where he thought he was going. Steve reach down and gripped the man’s wrist in a slightly too tight grasp, as he said, “I’m going with my best friend and if you ever touch me again, I’ll snap your wrist like a twig. GOT IT?” He then tossed the man’s arm away and followed the US marshals out the door.

“He’s not allowed to do that! I’ll have him arrested for assault. He doesn’t know who he’s messing with!” Whitehall screamed as he rubbed his wrist. It’s at that moment that Matt Murdock, one of the attorneys for Bucky, spoke up, “It seems to me he is dealing with a pompous ass who isn’t even smart enough to read the agreements that have made between his office and Mr Barnes’s counsel. Mr Rogers is being allowed to accompany Mr Barnes as support and protection from on going theat from the organization HYDRA. As to his physical attack as you claim on your person isn’t going to hold water as there are many witnesses to the fact that you placed your hand on him in the first place. But that was probably your intent wasn’t it?” With that statement Murdock and his partner Nelson walked towards the door of the tower to follow their client. The pissed off Whitehall stalked off I a huff, not noticing a SHIELD Agent following him. Coulson wasn’t taking any chances it seemed.

Outside the press was going crazy as the Winter Soldier was walked out to be placed in a SUV for transport, only to be joined by Captain America before the line of vehicles left Avengers tower. Most headlines the next day would deal with what the presence of Captain America meant in the arrest of the Winter Soldier, were the rumors true that the Winter Soldier was in fact the long lost best friend of Captain America? Already the plan would be working just the way they wanted.

As Steve and Bucky sped away, everyone else was rapidly finishing last minute details so they could board the Quinjet to head for DC and be there for Steve and Bucky. Only Peter, Gwen and Aunt May were staying behind in the tower while everyone else was going. Less than an hour later, the Quinjet was streaking through the air towards the nation’s capital. Forty five minutes later they were speeding through downtown DC toward Tony’s capital house. Once they arrived they all quickly settled in before checking in with Clint and Natasha about where they would be keeping Bucky. The two assassins reported the it was a high security facility and that Bucky would be well protected. They also reported that FitzSimmons had planted bugs and were monitoring the facility. They currently were all checking out the courthouse to prevent any surprises that might pop up. They estimated that they would be back at the house in about two hours. After the report from Clint and Natasha, they checked in with Steve, who reported that they were just now landing in DC and would be heading to the facility where Bucky would be staying. Pepper told him they had packed him clothes and that they had a room ready for him if he wanted it. Steve thanked them but said he would see if they would let him stay with Bucky. After Steve hung up, they all decided to have food delivered and prepare for the next day since the trial would start the next day, the US attorney hoping to catch them off balance with a speedy start to the trial. Little did they know that Pepper and Darcy had been preparing for just such a move. They were ready to give the US attorney a rude awaking in the morning. Once they had eaten, they decided to all call it a night, leaving notes for Clint, Natasha and FitzSimmons that there was food in the fridge and where their rooms were at.

In the morning they found Steve sitting at the table, drinking coffee and looking fidgety. When they asked him why, he answered, “They wouldn’t let me stay with Bucky last night. I’m just waiting until I can had back over. I just have a weird feeling something is going to happen.” After hearing that, FitzSimmons fired up their equipment and started checking their bugs. Meanwhile Clint and Natasha slipped out the door to take a look around themselves. Tony put in a call to Coulson to see if he had uncovered anything out of the ordinary, learning nothing new. They all quickly got ready to head to the courthouse and headed out. They arrived at the courthouse shortly, having to brave the mass of press as they all screamed out for a sound bite. They met the lawyers Murdock and Nelson at the top of the stairs, all of the waiting for the arrival of the marshals and Bucky. Once Clint and Natasha slipped into the group, they figured Bucky wasn’t far behind, the marshal vehicles pulling up moments later. Steve walked down the steps to meet the marshals and Bucky, walking just behind Bucky’s left shoulder. They had made it about halfway up the stairs when a shot rang out and Bucky went down to the ground. Steve quickly covered his friend’s back as he scan the skyline for the shooter. Just as he spotted a glint off a scope, he realized that Clint was already racing across the street to find the shooter as Natasha fed him info via an earpiece. Since his teammates had the situation under control, Steve turned to see how badly injured Bucky was only to find Bucky laughing with a compacted bullet sitting on his back. “What the hell is so funny jerk? Do you find being shot funny?” yelled Steve to his friend. “I’m laughing because I told Tony he was being paranoid for making a energy shield generator part of the shoulder plug he gave me. Asked him who the hell would take a shot at the Winter Soldier? Especially in front of the courthouse?” euphoric Bucky said as he laid there thanking God that Tony Fucking Stark was such a goddamn genius. Once they established that Bucky wasn’t hurt, the marshals quickly rushed him inside the building with Steve following closely, meeting Tony, Pepper, and Bruce just inside the doors, the three staying behind after everyone else rushed inside after the shot. Steve just grabbed Tony and crushed him in a giant hug, saying thank you over and over again. Tony just said he was glad it had worked and that he had been hoping there wouldn’t be a need for it. Just then they spotted Clint coming back with a sniper rifle attached to some kind of case, Clint explaining that it was a remote shooting system when he reached the building. Which meant that someone wanted to shoot Bucky, but not get caught. Before any law enforcement could demand the gun and case, FitzSimmons showed up flashing some kind of badge, taking the gun and case to disappear and analyze the gun and equipment to learn any clues. 

As a group they all headed for the courtroom where the court officers were trying to calm everyone down to be able to start the trial. As soon as they had everyone settled, Steve and the rest of the Avengers sitting directly behind Bucky, everyone had to stand again as the judge was presented to the court. Once the judge was settled and told everyone to sit, the court clerk announced, “Case number 946837-7653437, the United States vs the Winter Soldier, James Buchanan Barnes. His honor judge Goldberg presiding. Are the prosecution and defense ready to proceed?” Both the prosecutor and Mr. Murdock said they were ready to proceed with the case even in light of the assassination attempt on Mr Barnes life. The judge then decided to clear the cells in the courthouse and keep Mr Barnes in a cell here to lessen his exposure to further assassination attempts. This secretly pleased Clint and Natasha as the courthouse was a more secure building and now they only had one location to watch. 

After the judge’s order that Bucky would be kept at the courthouse, the prosecution started their case against Bucky. They started by listing all the damage he caused in the destruction of the Triskelion and attack in downtown DC, going on to list confirmed kills he carried out, now known thanks to the release of data during the fall of SHIELD. The prosecution stated that it was their intention to prove that the Winter Soldier was a ruthless killer and should be locked up and the key thrown away.

Once it was the defense’s turn, Matt Murdock stood up, slowly walking around as he started talking, “We’ll be showing how HYDRA captured Mr Barnes, tortured, and maimed him. How they broke him down till they were able to turn him into the Winter Soldier, cryogenically freezing him, unfreezing him only to complete missions before freezing him again. They used him not as an asset, someone working for them, but as a weapon. Something to point at a target and let loose. The controlled him via brainwashing, starving him, implanting explosives in his body with the treat of detonation. This man is not a war criminal, but a prisoner of war who was treated as less then human. How can he be held accountable for his actions if they weren’t even his decisions?”

After Mr Murdock finished speaking the courtroom was as silent as a tomb. The jury was seemed to be holding their collective breath from his speech. The spell was broken as the judge banged his gavel and told the prosecution to present their case. The lead US attorney started off by showing the surveillance video from street cameras of the fight between the Winter Soldier and Captain America in the streets of downtown DC, showing his ruthlessness and utter disregard for human life in the battle. They then showed what little video they could recover of his tactics during the fall of the Triskelion and the crashing of the three Helicarriers, to him almost killing Captain America in the process. Next they started to list the terrorist attacks he had preformed and assassinations carried out, from scientists to government officials to people in key positions that stood in the way of HYDRA’s growth. They brought in the small number of witnesses they could to his deadly skills, one of them being a sixty year old woman by the name of Patricia Essex. After being swore in, the prosecutor asked her, “Mrs Essex, if you would could you please describe what happened the night your father was killed.” “It was 1975 when I was ten years old. My father had just put me to bed and returned to his office to work. I was awaken by a noise from te hallway and got up to see what it was. When I opened the door, I saw the defendant standing over my father’s body holding a gun. He looked at me like I was something he couldn’t figure out. He seemed to listen to something and said ‘№ Я не буду убить ребенка.’ I’ll never forget it.” After that Mr Murdock cross-examined Mrs Essex, “Mrs Essex, do you know what that phrase means? Also could you elaborate on what happened after the defendant said the phrase.” Mrs Essex nodded as she started talking, “yes I looked it up years later. He said ‘No. I will not kill the child.’ After that there was a small popping sound and he crumbled to the ground. As he lay there, he looked at me and told me to run out of the house and to hide till morning. Although he killed my father, I’m sure he saved my life that day. From where I hid in a tree, I saw men arrive and carry him out. One of them said something about the soldier still wouldn’t kill children. Believe me, I was glad of that.” Mr Murdock nodded his thanks, turning to the court, “I enter into evidence the official HYDRA report of the assassination of one Hamilton Essex. In the report you can see where they say the weapon malfunctioned. That they had to use the spine damaging charge to teach a lesson. Weapon was retrieved and subjected to extreme shock treatment and sent into cyro for storage till needed again. They never refer to him in any type of human terms. Only as a weapon and what use he was to them. He showed a spark of humanity by not killing a child and they blew a explosive charge in his back in response. Does that seem like the actions of a man who was doing the missions by his own choice?”

The rest of the day was spent in a similar pattern, the prosecution presenting evidence of Bucky’s actions and the defense doing what it could to show the other side of the actions and how he wasn’t treated as a man, just a weapon. At around four in the afternoon the judge called a halt for the day and said court would resume at nine the next morning. As they led Bucky out of the courtroom, Steve started to follow only to be informed that he wouldn’t be able to do that. He didn’t push the fact for two reasons, one that the US marshals had brought in more marshals after the attempt on Bucky that morning. The second was that he didn’t want to jeopardize Bucky’s chances by asking for special treatment. As he rejoined the rest of the Avengers, they all decided to head back to Tony’s house to eat and rest for the next day. 

Once they reached the house it was to find Coulson, Melinda May and Skye sitting at the kitchen table waiting for them. Coulson informed them that the man who had been stirring up the crowd in New York had been hired to make trouble during the arrest of the Winter Soldier. He was suppose to yell a phrase that was suppose to trigger the Winter Soldier to return to HYDRA control. That’s when Skye jumped in with information about deputy US attorney Whitehall. Turns out he wasn’t a US attorney at all, in fact she was pretty sure he was HYDRA. She had found a photo of Whitehall that shows him in a Nazi uniform with HYDRA emblems on it. So either he had a relative that he looks a lot like or he was given one of the super soldier serums they had been trying to get to work. Their guess was he had been there to collect Bucky when the phrase was spoken. After hearing that, they all decided to be on high alert for HYDRA trying again. 

Tony then asked if FitzSimmons had learned anything from the gun and remote case from that morning. Coulson said yes, that the remote had been set to shoot at a specific time not to fire at a certain person. Their belief was that it was a scare tactic to have the judge do exactly as he did by clearing the holding cells in the courthouse. They found fingerprints inside the case that lead to a member of a drug cartel, making them believe that they were trying to get someone moved to a less secure place. Coulson had already informed the FBI, DEA, and US marshals that an attack May be coming. After hearing that Clint mumbled that explained why the gun had been where it was at, that it had been a terrible spot to take a shot from. That the angles had been al wrong to make a killshot from, making Coulson nod in agreement. 

Once they had all been caught up, they ordered food, ate and all went to bed to be ready for the next day. The following morning found everyone back at the courthouse ready for another day of the prosecution trying to make a case against Bucky, which only lasted till just after one that afternoon due to the fact that he spent a good deal of the time he was with HYDRA in suspended animation in cyro tanks. The defense quickly set to work to humanize the Winter Soldier into the man James Barnes. They first called Steve to the stand to explain how Bucky fell from the train during World War ll and how he was when Steve met him on the bridge after all that time thinking he was dead, how Bucky didn’t even recognize his best friend in the world, a man he had protected from boyhood till the day he left for the army. The prosecution objected on the grounds that it was all hearsay based on Steve’s opinion. The judge overruled but told the defense that they better be going somewhere with this line questioning. Mr Murdock assured the court that they were headed somewhere, excusing Steve while they reserved the right to recall him later. Next the they put up on a large screen a report from a Dr. Zola regarding the day that HYDRA found James Barnes buried in the snow with a mangled left arm at the base of the ravine he fell into. In it Dr. Zola described the state that James Barnes was in and how happy that they had retrieved one of the surviving subjects they had been experimenting on at the base that Captain America had rescued them from. Dr Zola then went on to list the step they took to ensure James Barnes survival, from more experimental super soldier serums, to removing his arm to stop gangrene, up to the procedure to attach his metal arm with no anesthesia since his body burned it off too fast. As he started to read out how they strapped James down to a surgical table to attach the mechanical arm, a film of the procedure started to roll on the screen behind him showing in graphic detail the entire sadistic operation. From them sawing off the stump of his arm and shoulder as blood ran off the table, his body desperately trying to heal itself, to them basically screwing the metal shoulder and arm into his collar bone and rib cage, to them running crude biofeedback wiring under the skin to be attached at the base of his skull to give him control of the arm to use. The film also showed James Barnes killing several doctors and guards, lashing out in a pain filled haze. They had to seal the room and gas him to knock him out to regain control of him. Mr Murdock then went on to describe how they next tried to starve him into compliance, their reasoning be that a willing subject produced a better soldier. When that didn’t work, they tried pain, torture and drugs to control him. They final decided that shock therapy would be next. At first they just wanted to soften his mind enough to take orders except that he tried to break free from the chair and the doctor administering the shock therapy turned the voltage to the maximum setting trying to protect himself. The result was a blank subject that still retained his skills. They also quickly learned that his mind would slowly heal itself if regular mind wiping wasn’t undertaken. It was also around that time that they found that they could freeze him and he would survive due to a freak winter storm when they were training him where they found him frozen and brought him back to study only for him to wake up when thawed out. 

After reading all of Zola’s notes from his experiments on Bucky, a recess had to be called since both Bucky and Steve had crushed the arms of their chairs while listening to the details of the early experiments. Once the chairs had been replaced, the judge decided to halt the proceedings for the day, to be resumed the next morning at 9am. The Avengers all felt emotional drained after hearing about what had happened to Bucky in the beginning of his capture after he fell from the train during World War ll. Once they arrived back at Tony’s DC house, Tony had J.A.R.V.I.S. find the nearest gym so he could sent anyone who needed to work out some aggression there before they snapped on a teammate, namely one Steve Rogers who looked about ready to put a fist through a wall. Once pointed in the direction of the gym, Steve took off in a fast run, with Sam trailing behind to keep an eye on him. Everyone else settled for raiding Tony’s bar except for Clint who found a way out on roof of the house with a bottle of tequila. The next morning was greeted with a lot of hangovers and a bill for thirty three destroyed punching bags. Steve tried to apologize but Pepper just told him that Tony said it was worth it just so Steve didn’t accidently hurt someone. Sam made everyone laugh on the way back to the courthouse as he bitched about getting sand in places he didn’t know he had from Steve exploding punching bags in anger last night. 

When court resumed that morning, the defense picked up the narrative of how HYDRA turned James Barnes into the Winter Soldier, noting how they refined the ways they controlled him as they went. How they had to mind wipe him every time they pulled him from suspended animation, that they had to send him with a support team, to back him up and also there to stop and retrieve him if he went rouge due to his mind healing itself. They also received payments by selling his services to the highest bidder. One such employer was a Russian organization named the Red Room. At that point Mr Murdock called Natasha to the stand to testify about the Winter Soldier during his employment at the Red Room. 

“The Winter Soldier was brought in to train us to fight without mercy. His teaching method was cut and dry, either right or wrong. We all very quickly learned to execute the moves correctly to avoid the bruises and broken bones that resulted from the training. My memory of him was that it was like he was a human robot we were learning from. The only time I even saw anything remotely human about him was the last time he taught us. We were in the fight room learning to escape immobilizing holds when another instructor came to collect one of the girl to have some ‘fun’ with. When she started screaming that she didn’t want to go with him, that it hurt when he played with her down there, its like a light came on in the Winter Soldier’s eyes. Before the other instructor had taken another two steps, he was dead from having his skull crushed in the Winter Soldier’s metal hand. Afterwards he was tasered unconscious even though he didn’t resist.” Natasha told the court, in a voice that seemed like it happened to someone else. Mr Murdock then asked her if she had ever seen the Winter Soldier again, yo which she answered, “Not in the Red Room. The only other time I had any contact with him was a few years after I had joined SHIELD, though at the time I thought that the Winter Soldier was a codename for a line of top tier assassins since no one could have had the career he had and still be alive. I was assigned to protect a scientist who was defecting to the U.S. It was suppose to be a simple escort mission, just get the scientist to the extraction point. We were about 2 miles from extract when the car engine was taken out with a single shot. As we bailed out of the car, I was covering the scientist with my body, giving the shooter no open shot to the doctor. As I returned gunfire, working our way into the woods at the side of the road, I got a glimpse of the shooter as he moved for cover to avoid my return fire. I recognized the metal arm on him, having seen it before. The next thing I remember is waking up in the medical wing of SHIELD with a very large bullet hole in me. It seems that the shooter had killed the scientist by shooting though me, missing anything vital, and killing the scientist with a shot in the heart. To be able to do that is the work of an expert marksman. But one under such tight control that he didn’t do anything but what he was ordered to do. Which was kill his target and leave. The next time I saw him was when he attacked Captain America, Falcon and myself on the bridge here in DC.”

After Natasha left the stand, Mr Murdock started to supply example after example of little rebellions that proved that James Barnes was still inside the Winter Soldier, the last of which before the meeting on the bridge lead to the creation of the explosive and poisonous implants they placed in his body to keep him under control. The last time he had rebelled, he had almost escaped. The Winter Soldier had been sent to kill a family that was impeding HYDRA’s plans from moving forward. He was to kill Howard Stark and his family according to the reports. So he shot out the tires of the car they were driving to cause the crash that killed Howard and Maria Stark. When it was reported that young Tony Stark wasn’t in the car, the Winter Soldier was sent to finish the job. The next part of the report is a description of the discovery of death of the entire team sent with him to monitor him. Next is an account of the chase and recovery of the Winter Soldier that lasted three days of him killing anyone sent to capture him and him moving north in search of someone. The chase only ended due to the Winter Soldier not eating and him collapsing due to hunger. The end of the report went on to state how thankful they were that they had fried his mind so much that he couldn’t even remember to eat and the request to implant the ‘control’ devices. 

Mr Murdock was silent for a moment as he let the information presented sink before asking the jury, “Do you understand how HYDRA tried to destroy any spark of the man James Barnes use to be. That when he did anything to try to rebel, they wiped his mind, even going as far as to place implants in his body to control him, by means of poison or if need be as such as the case with Mrs Essex an explosive designed to render him immobile to one that would kill him as according to the body scans done by Tony Stark and Dr. Bruce Banner when the Winter Soldier was brought in to the Avengers tower. He went on to talk about how for the entire time he was in HYDRA custody, James Barnes was treated as less than human, as a weapon to be used when needed and stored away when not needed. They didn’t treat his wounds, letting the super soldier serum take care of any injuries, just worrying whether he was functional enough to be of use. So my question to you is this, if he was treated like that and kept in those conditions, how could he be held responsible for his actions when he was punished for any type of deviation from his orders or for even showing any type of human emotion or decency.? How is it that we are trying to hold him responsible for his actions when the very people that sent him on those missions considered him a weapon themselves? That his only use was to be pointed at a target and sent on his way. If that is how he was treated and used, how can the prosecution say that he can be held accountable when he was never even given a choice in the matter, was punished on a whim at the slightest hint of regaining himself and treated as an object and not a person. How is he a danger to anyone now that he has been taken out of that situation? He survives all that and now they want to lock him up again just so they have a scapegoat to blame. Does that seem right to you? In your heart you know what needs to be done in that jury room. Defense rests your honor.”

After that the judge dismissed the jury to deliberated on the verdict for Bucky’s freedom. Bucky was taken back to his cell, where he was accompanied by Steve and Sam, who told the guards they were coming with him or the would just have Black Widow and Tony Stark break them in. Everyone else took over a conference room to wait for the verdict, which they were told they couldn’t do by a snarky security guard. Tony just pointed at Bruce and said, “Go away or he will get angry. You wouldn’t like him angry.” As the guard ran off like the Hulk was chasing him, Bruce flipped Tony the bird making everyone else laugh, relieving the tension in the room for the moment.

They had been waiting for about a half an hour when Natasha got a call on her phone. As she listened, she reached over and tapped a pattern on Clint’s forearm. Clint immediately popped out of his chair, hopped on the table, opened the vent cover and promptly disappeared inside. As everyone’s eyes dropped from the vent to Natasha in question, she ended the call as she looked around the room, “Coulson just intercepted a HYDRA plan that indicates that they are coming for Bucky. From what they found out, this case was pushed forward by someone wanting the Winter Soldier in prison. The plan was for him to disappear after ‘escaping’, most likely back into HYDRA’s hands. So the question is, who wants to go disappoint them?”

Bruce stood up, loosening his tie and unbuttoning his shirt, neatly folding them as he took them off. When he looked up, all he said was “What? I like this suit.” Tony just grinned as he strolled out the room, heading for the front door with Thor following. When the two of them got outside, they were greeted with a race between the pieces of the Ironman suit and Mjolnir towards their respective owners. Thunder and lightening crashed across the sky as Thor caught Mjolnir and the Ironman suit assembled around Tony. Just before the last piece attached itself to the suit, a gauntlet, it dropped a long, bulky container at Tony’s feet. He picked it up as they headed back inside to regroup with rest of the Avengers, Natasha leading them further into the courthouse towards the cells underneath. As they made it to the first gate, they met Steve, Sam, Bucky and Clint coming the from the holding area, most of the guards trailing behind them with a few tied up with hand cuffs and zip ties. 

“Have some problems Hawkeye?” asked Natasha as they met up. “Not really. By the time I got there, these three had already subdued these dumbasses. The other guards turned a lot less hostile once I explained that they were HYDRA agents and not new guards. They’re really not happy about it. So I told them to come with us, figured they could guard the bystanders while we go kick some HYDRA ass.” responded Clint with a shrug.

“Ok two things. One, I want it noted that Bucky, in his one armed glory, took out these HYDRA agents. Me and Steve just tied them out. Two, how the hell did Hawkeye get a bow and his quiver in the building? You know what? Fuck it I don’t care.” said Sam, throwing up his arms. 

After Sam’s outburst, Tony stepped forward holding the container, “Speaking of Bucky, I got something for him” holding it out to the one arm man. As Bucky stepped up to Tony, the container opened to reveal a new metal arm, painted a tactical black with a red star inside a captain America shield at the shoulder. As he stared at it, Bucky reached up to disengage the plug from his shoulder, dropping it in the container as he picked up the arm, fitting it into the socket and locking it in. There was a few moments it hung unmoving before Bucky slowly raised it up and flexed the hand and arm. As he did, he noticed a circular area in the palm of the hand. When he asked what it was, Tony said, “That is a repulsor like I have on my suit. I put in there as a kind of weapon of last resort, since I’m pretty sure it will suck most of the energy out of your arm at once. The arm is also more robust then the other one you had, three times the grip strength and pops out spikes from the knuckles when you punch something. You like?” Bucky just nodded as he popped the spikes out of the hand. 

As they all left the holding area below, Steve started to outline the plan of having the guards get all the non combatants away from the front of the building and how they would get ready to repel HYDRA, only for it to be all moot as they met Coulson and Melinda May directing people out the way and setting up to protect the non combatants. As they arrived at his side, Coulson reached down and tossed Sam his wings and Steve his shield. May handed Bucky a machine gun with a grenade launcher and a brand new fifty caliber sniper rifle. “Happy being proven innocent. We were going to give them to you after the trial, but now seems like a good time for them.” answered a shrugging Coulson as Bucky look at them questioningly. As Bucky started to turn away, May grabbed his shoulder handing him a piece of paper. When he opened it up he saw it was a note from the judge saying that the jury had found him not guilty on all counts. Bucky smiled and tucked the paper into a pocket of his shirt, planning to keep the paper safe once this was over. 

 

As multiple SUVs screeched up in front of the courthouse followed by several APCs, Mr Whitehall stepped out of one of the SUVs straightening his suit. As the HYDRA soldiers got into position to rush the courthouse, one of them suddenly reported that the Winter Soldier was sitting on the top step of the stairs to the courthouse. Whitehall quickly grabbed a loudspeaker, not believing his good luck, yelling, “Winter Soldat. Rückkehr. (Winter Soldier. Return.)” hoping the code phrase would work and they could escape easily. The Winter Soldier quickly shot to his feet, marching down the stairs till he reach the flat ground in front of them, before stopping and shouting, “That fucking shit doesn’t work anymore asshole! Go to hell!” as he flipped his machine gun around and launched a grenade towards the soldiers, diving for cover. As the grenade landed, it started spewing colored smoke obscuring the HYDRA soldiers’s sight. Once the smoke clear enough to see, they were greeted with the sight of the Avengers standing ready to do battle. 

As everyone stood ready to fight, Whitehall watched as a man in a dark suit walked down the stairs and up to the front of the group of HYDRA soldiers like they didn’t matter, stopping and raising his voice to be heard, “Attention. I will be making this offer only once. We really don’t want to fight you here and cause damage to the city. I mean we will if we have to. We’re willing to let you retreat and battle us on another day. All we want is for you to take a message back to HYDRA command that the Winter Soldier isn’t yours any longer and any action taken against him in any matter is to be considered an attack against the Avengers as well any attack against any other member. Now everyone is free to leave. Except Mr Whitehall. He stays. You have five minutes to decide.”

Whitehall was in complete awe of arrogance of the suited man in front of him. As if any member of HYDRA would run away from a fight to complete what they were ordered to do. “Who do you think you are to be making that type of offer? We are HYDRA, we well not be talked down to in such a matter! ATTACK!” yelled Whitehall.

“I’m Director Phil Coulson and I think that has been long enough.” Coulson answered with a smile as the Hulk landed behind him, grabbing and tossing him back to be caught by Captain America. As Captain America set Coulson on his feet, the Hulk started to swat vehicles aside as he went in a straight line towards Whitehall, who was trying to throw as many men between him and the Hulk. As he started to look for a way to get away from the oncoming defeat, Whitehall started to notice that a good portion of the soldiers behind him were already laying on the ground. As he looked around he never even saw the arrow that struck him in the side, sending an intense pulse of electricity through him as it tasered unconscious. 

 

Steve handed Tony a five dollar bill as Tony landed on the ground at the top of the stairs as he said, “Well you were right. Make a big enough show and they didn’t even notice the fact that Bucky, Natasha, Clint or May were even up here with us. Even with less than five minutes, those four took out a sizable chunk of HYDRA agents before Whitehall ordered the attack. By the way, did you put a taser option in Bucky’s new arm?”

“Yeah figured it would come in handy for infiltration. Better than snapping a neck in case you need to question someone.” answered Tony as the two men watched the subdued HYDRA soldiers being rounded up by an army of FBI, DHS, CIA and other law enforcement agencies after the near flawless plan to capture the HYDRA forces. Their plan had been to minimize the damage to the courthouse area and hopefully have no innocents lost. It was fairly simple in its design, dangle what they wanted right in front (Bucky), distract with some smoke which let Bucky slip into the soldiers and signaling Natasha, Clint and May along with Bucky to began quietly taking out soldiers, reducing their fighting force. Coulson walking down and making the speech was just a delaying tactic to keep the focus on the Avengers. Once Whitehall’s quickly igniting anger made him snap, the Hulk collected Coulson and was told to go get the loudly yelling man in exchange for a ‘play date’ with Thor once they got back home. The only thing they didn’t figure on was the fact that the Hulk would leave a trail of huge footprints in the sidewalk and street. Pepper was already making arrangements to have them fixed.

Once everyone was back together, the Avengers, plus Pepper, Coulson and his team quickly made their way to Tony’s DC house to collect there luggage and head to the airport to load up the Quinjet to make their way home to the tower. Just as they were about to take off they were informed the CIA wanted to talk to them about the whereabouts of the HYDRA officer Whitehall to which Coulson said that he was on his way to Avengers tower to be questioned by the Black Widow and Melinda May. He asked what the CIA’s interest was in the man, to be informed that they thought he had information about some missing CIA personal they were looking for. Coulson told the CIA that they were more than welcome to send someone to observe or question Whitehall themselves but he was staying in Avengers custody for now. Once Coulson was off the call from the CIA, Steve asked him if Whitehall was going to Avengers tower, how was he getting there since he wasn’t on the plane with them. That’s when Clint broke in saying, “He’s flying Air Hulk.” When Steve and several others looked at him questioningly, Clint pointed out that Bruce wasn’t there and explained that, “I tied Whitehall’s unconscious body to the front of the Hulk and told him to take the bad man to Betty and we’d meet him there. I figured that by the time they arrived home, Whitehall would be sufficiently softened up to tell us anything we wanted to know.”

As Natasha smiled her Black Widow smile and leaned over to kiss Clint’s cheek, Sam commented, “Dude, that’s fucking evil. Brilliant, but fucking evil. No wonder you two are so good at retrieving information. You do whatever is needed to obtain it.” To which Clint and Natasha took stage bows. After that the flight back to New York passed quickly, where they dropped off Tony in his Ironman suit with a change of clothes for Bruce at the outskirts of the city where he planned to meet him so the Hulk wouldn’t tear up part of the city. 

Clint quickly landed the Quinjet in the hanger in the tower once they reached, everyone glad to be home and have the whole trial ordeal over with. As they all packed into the elevator to ride down to their floors, J.A.R.V.I.S. informed them, “Master Parker and Ms Stacy are requesting your assistance as soon as you can be available.” When Pepper asked whose help they needed, J.A.R.V.I.S. said, “To quote Ms Stacy, ‘Everybody that can be spared to help right now!’.”

As everyone looked at each other, Pepper had J.A.R.V.I.S. send the elevator to Peter and Gwen’s location, which surprisingly turned out to be the communal floor. As they all walked off the elevator, they saw Peter on the ceiling staring intently at a cocoon he seemed to have made on the couch. Gwen was sitting stiffly in a chair wringing her hands as she stared at the same cocoon. Pepper made them both jump when she yelled, “PETER! What did you do to the couch? And what is so important that it couldn’t wait?”

“I believe I can answer that question Ms Potts.” said a voice from the cocoon, strangely familiar. As so as Thor heard the voice he rushed forward to stand and stare down into the cocoon, his mouth hanging open in astonishment. As the rest of the group came forward, they all looked down to see the face of Loki as Thor shouted, “BROTHER! YOU’RE ALIVE!!”


	14. Chapter 13

Natasha was currently trying to figure out how to get her sulking husband out of the ventilation system. Clint had been in the duct work for two days now, where he fled after shooting Loki in the forehead with a taser arrow when Thor picked up his brother off the couch where Peter had encased Loki in webbing. In his defense, being confronted with the man (god?) that mind controlled you, a person might be a little jumpy when he saw the person next time, especially if it’s a surprise after a fight. Tony pissed himself laughing when he found out about the incident after picking up Bruce and Whitehall at the edge of the city after their ‘trip’ from DC. 

“мой сторонником (My hawk) you have to come out sometime. Thor has promised not to hit you with Mjolnir. Loki told him after he stopped twitching, that getting tasered was a small price in payback for mind controlling you. So you can stop hiding out.” Natasha spoke into a vent cover in the middle of the ceiling of the her and Clint’s living room.

The vent cover popped open and Clint dropped down in front of his wife, reaching up to close it as he stood back up. When he looked her in the eye, he started speaking, “It’s not that I’m afraid of what Thor would do to me so much as I’m embarrassed that I flipped out and shot Loki in the head like that. I just saw him and my first reaction was to take him out before it could happen again.”

After hearing him say that, Natasha reached out and smacked Clint in the back of the head before grabbing him in a hug as she said, “As if we would let that happen again. Besides you were the one to point out that Loki’s eyes were the same color as yours when reviewing the footage from the battle of New York. Just like you pointed out that his eyes were different after the Hulk smashed him into the floor. Just because you and Thor have a theory that Loki was being controlled too doesn’t mean you were ready to come face to face with him. How were you to know he was completely drained of magic and defenseless?”

“Gees, make me feel like I kicked a puppy why don’t you? Thor really not mad at me? And has Loki explained what he’s doing here when Thor thought he was dead?” he asked, him and her settling on the couch.

“No, Thor isn’t mad at you. He understands Loki is a sore subject still with you. As to what Loki’s explanation is, we don’t know cause he’s been asleep ever since you hit him with the taser arrow. From his state, Thor thinks Loki was beyond exhausted and that the shock to his system probably a good thing so that he could actually relax and recharge.” Natasha answered.

Before anything else could be said they were interrupted by J.A.R.V.I.S. as he blared, “CODE GREEN. CENTRAL PARK.” repeating over and over again. With a quick look at each other the two spysassians jumped up to go help their teammate.

 

When the Avengers arrive a few moments later in response to the CODE GREEN, they were surprised to find the Hulk sitting on the ground as a group of kids climbed all over him as a crowd of nervous parents stood to the side. Steve hurried over to a group of police officers who seemed to be trying to figure out what to do. He quickly calmed the officers down, telling them they would handle from this point forward, which they more than willing to let the Avengers do. When he turned to the team he saw that they had spread out to create a perimeter around the Hulk as he sat there. As he started to walk away one of the officers asked if Steve wanted to talk with the woman who had been with the Hulk, to which Steve asked where she was. The officer called over the radio for the woman to be brought to them. When they brought her forward, Steve saw that it was Betty that they were talking about. Steve quickly collected Betty as he escorted her towards the Hulk, knowing she was safest in his sight.

“Miss Ross, if you could, what happened to trigger Bruce to change into the Hulk? Also are the children safe playing with him?” Steve asked once they were far enough from the officers.

“First of all it’s Betty, second the children are the only thing keeping him from raging across Manhattan right now. He would never hurt a child and won’t move while they’re playing on him.” her statement surprising Steve and the others that heard her over Steve’s com link. “As to what happened to make him change, I talked Bruce into going out for lunch while some results were compiling. We decided it was a really nice day and that we would take a stroll through the park. As we came near the playground, Bruce was suddenly thrown back as bullet struck him in the head. He was changing even before he hit the ground and I started to yell for everyone to run as I hit the app J.A.R.V.I.S. and Tony put on my phone just in case something like this ever happened. As he came up off the ground, he placed me behind him for protection and grabbed a spinning ride off the playground, flinging it at a nearby stand of trees. He tried to take off but I asked him to stay and protect the children and me. Once he sat down the children slowly snuck over and started to play with him while I tried to keep him from being attacked by the police and the crowd. And before you ask about the bandage on my hand, I tripped on a rock and scrapped it. Oh, also I found the bullet when it fell out of the Hulk’s head. Figured maybe Tony could check it out.” she finished as he looked at Steve, seemlily not fazed by what she just said. 

“Ok, thank you Betty. Falcon, Hawkeye, check out the site where the Hulk threw the playground ride. Maybe he got lucky and caught the shooter. Ironman, get above us and start scanning to see if you can find anything unusual ok? Mean while the rest of us will keep an eye the Hulk.” Steve order, slipping into Captain America mode to get the incident taken care of. When he turned back to speak with Betty, he found that she had walked to the Hulk and started to send the children back to their parents, speaking softly to him, telling him that their friends were there and that it was time for Bruce to come back. As he looked around at the rest of the Avengers, the Hulk nodded and started to shrink down, slowly turning into an exhausted looking Bruce, who said, “Glad I’ve gotten to where I wear the expanding pants under my clothes or this would be really embarrassing.” He slowly stood up withe help of Betty, walking towards Steve, speaking under his breath, “Steve, get me and Betty to the Hulk room right now. Hulk is half a second from breaking out again and the safest place for us right now is there. It protects Betty and lets us calm down so I can regain control.”

Steve nodded his head at Thor, the Asgardian stepped forward to pick up the couple and take off to deliver them back at the tower. Once they had taken off, the rest of the Avengers rapidly took control of problem of who was stupid enough to shoot Bruce and release the Hulk. 

“I’m finding no clues to an escape from up here. How about you Hawkeye?” Sam reported when asked for a sit rep from Steve.

“I found part of the sniper’s nest. Problem is that the Hulk destroyed the rest of the building with the ride he threw over here. I mean I understand. Someone shoots you in the head, you’re going to be pissed. But would’ve helped if the building wasn’t scrap now. Oh and Tony, I think you’re going to owe the city a new playground and maintenance building.” Clint replied as he balanced on the edge of the non destroyed part of the maintenance building the shot came from.

“I’ll get right on that as soon as we figure out who shot my friend in the head. Anyone got anything?” answered a he made another pass over the park. 

“Just the bullet Betty grabbed when it came out of the Hulk. Let’s head back to the tower and take a look at it. It seems to be in perfect shape, no damage from striking Bruce’s head. Got so symbol etched in to the side. Almost looks like a crosshair.” reported Steve as he looked at the bullet Betty handed him.

Suddenly Clint cursed into the com link, “FUCK! I SWEAR TO FUCKING GOD I’M GOING TO CUT ONE OF HIS HANDS OFF! The bullet, it’s got three circles and a crosshair on the outside circle?” 

With a raised eyebrow as he watched he pissed off archer storm towards him, Steve answered, “Yes, it looks exactly like that. I take it you know who’s bullet this is?”

“Bull’s-eye. Mercenary that loves taking on difficult jobs and is just as good as I am. Guess you could call him the evil version of me. Titanium bullets with that symbol are his calling card, his way if letting people know who did the shooting. Explains why there wasn’t a trace of him, he already announced he was here.” explained Clint as he looked at the bullet that Steve handed him upon is reaching him. 

“Sounds like someone was willing to pay big bucks to have Bruce put down. Question is why? Also if this Bull’s-eye is as good as you say, wouldn’t he know that shooting Bruce wouldn’t have a chance in hell of working?” asked Sam as he landed near the two men, Natasha joining them soon after, her questioning of the witnesses done, the same basic story the got from Betty being told over and over again.

Suddenly Natasha stiffened, looking at all of them in realization as she said, “No, but it sure as hell got all of us out of the tower. What if this was a fucking distraction?”

The next sound heard was Tony blasting off towards the tower as he called out for J.A.R.V.I.S. to tell if the tower was secure, only for there to be no response. Everyone else quickly raced for the vehicles while Sam took off after Tony to help if he could. 

Upon reaching the tower, Tony saw that the building had been sent into lock down, the windows backed by Adamantium shutters. When he landed on the roof, followed shortly by Sam, Tony started the override process to get in, while also trying to get J.A.R.V.I.S. to answer him. Once inside, the two men started to make their way forward cautiously not knowing what was going on, only for Sam to stop Tony when he noticed that light in a nearby fixture was giving off morse code. As they watched the light blink, Sam was able to find out that J.A.R.V.I.S. was still functioning, the intruders had only cut his voice functions and thought they had disabled him. He was currently tracking them and preparing to knock them out with gas. He had already secured Ms Potts, Darcy, Jane, and others in rooms to keep them safe. He also told them that he was also reporting this to Steve via com link since he knew morse code from the army.

Tony quickly found a computer and disabled the virus that the intruders used to attack J.A.R.V.I.S. Once that was done, J.A.R.V.I.S. was able to rapidly updated the Avengers on the situation in the tower. They were all ready to give the go ahead for J.A.R.V.I.S. to knock out the intruders when Clint asked, “Quick question, where is Barnes? Cause as much as I love your buddy Steve, I really don’t want to meet him by surprise. He might not be HYDRA’s anymore, but he is still the Winter Soldier. This is the type of shit he was made for.”

“Mr Barnes presence would explain a problem I was have with my sensors I was attributing to the virus that was used to attack me. The number of intruders has diminished slightly since I started the lockdown. There were twenty men that attacked at first, later joined by another five after I was supposedly disabled. At the last count I have of them, they are down to eighteen men and getting more nervous as they lose contact with their missing members. Also of note is that the prisoner Whitehall seems to be missing.” J.A.R.V.I.S. reported in answer to Clint’s query.

“Whitehall is missing? How did he escape? What about Coulson and Hill? Where are they?” asked Steve as they started to make their way inside.

“Agent Hill and a small group of agents are in the SHIELD headquarters trying to breakout as access to the floor has been compromised. I still seem to have rouge programing in my systems. I will release Agent Hill and her agents as soon as I break the program that is blocking the operation of their security systems. Agent Coulson is currently working his way towards where I have locked down areas to protect Ms Potts, Ms Lewis, Dr. Foster, Mr Laufeyson and Agents FitzSimmons. I believe he is working on making sure they are safe. Also the intruders numbers have been reduced to sixteen at last count.”answered J.A.R.V.I.S.

Suddenly Natasha broke in to ask, “J.A.R.V.I.S. where are Gwen, Peter and Aunt May? Are they safe?”

“Mrs Parker and Ms Stacy are currently locked in Sir’s lab. Ms Stacy has rigged an Ironman gauntlet to protect the door. Mrs Parker seems to be knitting. There is no sign of Mr Parker. I shall continue to scan for him.” J.A.R.V.I.S. answered. 

Before anyone else could say anything, Steve, Clint, and Natasha arrived on the floor J.A.R.V.I.S. had told them the intruders were on. When they reported they were in position, Tony and Sam informed them that the two of them were on the floor above them and would join them soon. Once the had joined back up, Steve asked Tony what was on this floor that the intruders would want. Tony informed them, “According to the plans for the tower, its supposed to be the server floor, where all our research and info for Stark Industries is stored. Only I kind of set that up as false information. The servers are actually somewhere else. Other then that, your guess is as good as mine.”

At that Steve nodded, motioning they should move forward. They all crept onto the floor, splitting up to come at the intruders from all sides. Just before they engaged the intruders, J.A.R.V.I.S. informed them that their numbers had been reduced to fourteen. They quickly surrounded the intruders, Steve in full Captain America glory shouting for them to stand down and surrender. The intruders fell back, regrouping to face off with the Avengers. It might of worked if they hadn’t formed up with their backs to the Hulk chute and Thor picked that moment to punch the access door off and step out on the floor. Once that happened, all the fight went out of them and they quickly threw down their weapons, even as a couple of the leaders shouted for them to fight. Said leaders were suddenly very silent when Natasha zapped them with her Widow Bites, dropping them where they stood.

As they held the intruders while J.A.R.V.I.S. informed Coulson and Hill that they had stopped the intruders, Steve started to call out for Bucky to come out of hiding, only for Thor to inform him that Bucky was down in the Hulk room with Bruce and Betty. He arrived down there after he knocked out Whitehall and rappelled down the Hulk chute, figuring that’s who the intruders where there for. Bucky figured who would be stupid enough to try and get the man from the Hulk. Said he would have engaged them but he wasn’t sure if they were HYDRA and didn’t want to chance they still had a trigger word he didn’t know about. 

“Then who the hell was taking out the missing members of these guys? They just seemed to disappear.” asked Sam, who about jumped out of his skin when the answer came from above them.

“Yeah, that would be my fault there Falcon.” quipped Peter Parker as he lowered himself on a webline from the ceiling. “Face full of webbing to keep them quiet and another to yank them up on the ceiling where I left them stuck in a full body web as I went after another. They never even thought to look up. Sure did get real cautious about checking doors, shadows and corners but never the ceiling. Really made use of the lessons Hawkeye and Black Widow have been giving me. Just picked my moments and thinned the herd.”

Clint high fived Peter as Natasha look proud that their student had made good use of their training. Tony laughed and made a mental note to make sure J.A.R.V.I.S.’s sensors would include the ceilings in the future. Minutes later the room was flooded with agents as Coulson arrived to collect the prisoners. Peter had to go with them to show them where he had stashed the other intruders on the ceilings, tucked in shadowed places to keep them hidden. As they were leaving he made an offhanded comment of Peter joining SHIELD only to be shouted down by the Avengers while Tony yelled “Nuh ah, we saw him first. Finders keepers.” making everyone laugh again.

 

Later after all the excitement of the intrusion and the checking on their friends and family, they learned that the intruders were actually mercenaries hired by some disgraced HYDRA members who were looking to get back in the good graces of their superiors. They had thought if they rescued Whitehall and stole some info from Stark Industries, they would be welcomed back into the fold. They had hired Bull’s-eye to cause a big enough distraction to cause Hawkeye to go after him and hopefully the Avengers to go assist him, while they snuck into the tower. They first tried to grab Whitehall, only to find the man missing from the cell he was in. Then they tried to enter the labs, finding them sealed so tight that not even trying to blow the glass out worked. As a last resort before the Avengers came back, they tried to steal secure data from the servers only to find out they were fake. They all were more than ready to be arrested, especially the ones who Peter had captured while they were sneaking around. 

After the mercenaries and HYDRA agents had been turned over to the proper authorities, they collected a terrified Whitehall, who agreed to answer any question they asked after spending an afternoon in the same room with a very angry Bruce Banner and a ex-brainwashed super solider who very calmly explained in detail what he would like to do the man if he kept stalling in answering their questions.

Coulson and Hill wasted no time in pumping the man for all the information they could get about HYDRA bases, plans and members. Coulson and Hill soon had every available Agent tracking down the information Whitehall was talking himself hoarse giving them, while keeping from having another visit from the Winter Soldier or a first visit from the Black Widow. The next morning he was still talking when Melinda May informed Coulson that a pair of CIA agents had arrived to interrogate Whitehall about their missing agents. 

After the excitement of the break in, Tony jumped right on upgrading J.A.R.V.I.S. and the security of the tower, but right at the moment all visitors had to be escorted till the security measures were in place. Which is how Steve found himself asked to retrieve the agents for Coulson when he had to come to see what kind of info they were getting out of Whitehall since the man had been stonewalling them after his arrival at the tower.

After saying yes he would retrieve the agents, Steve found himself in the elevator as J.A.R.V.I.S. took him to the lobby while he hoped the CIA agents weren’t total tools, the thought making him grin when he realized that he had been hanging out with Tony for too long if that was the first thought that popped into his head when thinking of government officials. Once he reached the lobby, he saw a man in a suit facing him as he talked to a blonde woman with her back to him. When she turned around at his approach he couldn’t stop himself from saying, “Finally save up enough to use my washing machine neighbor?”

“Do you one better,” the woman quickly stepping to the side as she pulled her gun to point it at her partner’s head, the man freezing in place as the hammer of the gun was cocked back. “How about a deep cover HYDRA Agent as a present? Don’t give me that look you bastard. Did you really think you could fool me? I’m a Carter, of course I was going to vet you and I have access to resources you wouldn’t believe.” she ranted at the first outraged then pissed look on her partners face. Things didn’t go much past that because Steve stepped forward and slammed his fist in the man’s face knocking him out. As the blonde woman lowered her gun, Steve turned to her, asking “So you up for a cup of coffee after we drop this guy in a cell? Then maybe you can explain what the hell just happened, cause I sure would like to know.”

With a smirk on her face, she gestured for Steve to lead the way, which he did after reaching down to pick up the unconscious man and throw him over his shoulder. As they stepped on the elevator Steve told J.A.R.V.I.S. to take them to the SHIELD floor to drop off their new ‘guest’. Once they arrived on the SHIELD floor, Steve flagged down a couple nearby agents to take the waking man. They quickly cuffed him and dragged him off, the man raging that HYDRA would prevail and they wouldn’t get anything out of him. The last they saw of him was the surprise on his face as the blonde woman held up the poisoned tooth she had removed so the man couldn’t kill himself.

“Agent 13, I take it that your assignment to the CIA was a success? Couldn’t find any more sleeper agents?” asked Hill as she approached the pair. 

“As I’m not still a member of SHIELD, I prefer being called by my actual name, Sharon Carter if you please. The only reason I even did the favor for Coulson is because I thought it was a good idea. Also I was already in the process of doing it anyways. But I’m finding the CIA to be a not so good fit, I was wondering if perhaps I might be able to offer my services here.” she replied in answer to Hill’s questions while handing the woman a thumbdrive. When Hill held the device up in question, Sharon explained that it contained all the HYDRA agents she could identify before having to quit digging into the CIA personnel files. Hill quickly passed the drive off to a nearby tech to have the information analyzed. 

Mean while Steve just stared at the woman he had thought of as the one that got away after the fall of SHIELD, learning where she had been since then. He listened to the two women talk, discovering that she had still been working for Coulson unofficially while she worked for the CIA. Of course the woman who held a gun to Brock Rumlow’s head during the Insight launch would go hunting HYDRA in an entirely new organization. Just like her aunt Peggy, feisty as hell. Hopefully she wouldn’t shoot at him like her aunt. After she gave the drive to Hill and before she could be sucked into something else, he said, “If you’ll excuse us, Ms Carter and I have a coffee date she promised me. I’ll get the info you got from Whitehall later ok?” He offered his arm to Sharon, her looping her arm in his to a lot of surprised faces, as he turned them to enter the elevator. Once they were safely enclosed in the elevator, Sharon started laughing about the looks on the people’s faces. 

Steve smiled widely watching Sharon laugh, almost laughing himself when she started again after glancing at his face. She pulled herself together by the time they arrived on the communal floor, walking out like nothing had happened at all, strutting toward the kitchen area like nothing could bother her. Nothing except a certain redheaded assassin speaking up from a couch in the corner, “Now I know why none of the ladies I suggested even peaked his interest.” causing Steve to turn a bright red and Sharon to spin around into a defensive position. Natasha just cocked her eyebrow as she casually turned a page in one of Pepper’s many wedding magazines before continuing, “She wouldn’t happen to be the person you keep slipping away to visit and seem to just miss them being there?” the statement making Sharon’s head snap to Steve’s face, it turning an even deeper red as the supersoldier blushed even harder.

“You’ve tried to visit me?” Sharon asked, standing up to face the embarrassed man in front of her. Rubbing the back of his neck with his hand, Steve nodded yes in answer to her question. “How often? And why?” she asked, his answer totally shocked her when he answered her. “Twice a month if we weren’t on a mission. The reason I kept trying to see you is that I can’t get you out of my mind. There is just something about you that has stayed with me. I couldn’t stay away.”

“Aww, Cap has a crush.” they heard from the kitchen area, Tony leaning on the counter with a grin. Without taking her eyes off Steve, Sharon pulled out her gun and fired in Tony’s direction, shattering his coffee mug in his hand. After jumping back in surprise as he yelled, “HOLY FUCKING SHIT! God damn at least Natasha just throws knives. Fine I get it, no teasing! Ah man that was my favorite mug.” the last part said as he grabbed the coffee pot and walked out drinking from it. 

Meanwhile Natasha was on the floor laughing her ass off as she texted Clint what just happened. Couple seconds later they heard a muffled thump as Clint fell out of a vent laughing his ass off.

Steve had just raised his eyebrows in question, Sharon’s answer being, “I have been dealing with have a HYDRA member as a partner, hunting other ones in the CIA and wound tighter then clock spring. I wasn’t in the mood to deal with Tony Stark’s shit. Now I believe you were explaining that you couldn’t stop thinking of me? I’d like to hear more about that.”

Steve just laughed as he gestured for her to follow him into the kitchen where they found Aunt May sweeping up the broken coffee mug while eyeing the dent in the refrigerator door. When Sharon asked how the bullet didn’t go through, Steve explained that Tony had re-enforced the door on it after both Steve and Bucky had ripped the door off in the middle of the night while looking for a midnight snack. That made her laugh as she imagined Steve standing in the middle of the kitchen holding the refrigerator door in his hand and looking like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar. The two of them then sat down to talk while Aunt May started another pot of coffee after retrieving another coffee pot from the cabinet since it was a common occurrence for Tony to wander off with a pot when he was on a science bender. As they talked Aunt May served them coffee and snacks, both of them thanking her each time. She also shooed away anyone who tried to interrupt them as she saw something between them that she use to share with her Ben. She saw it as her duty to make sure the spark between them grew and no one bothered them. Which is how the Avengers found themselves ordered to go out for dinner that night. As they all were leaving, Natasha handed Pepper a twenty as she quietly told her that Natasha’s pet project to find someone for Steve was probably over if the looks Steve and Sharon were giving each other were any indication. Pepper just smiled when she said that she told her that Steve would find someone on his own.


	15. Chapter 14

Loki woke up to find Clint Barton sitting backwards in a chair with his arms crossed over the back, his head resting on them as he stared at the god in his bed. After staring at each other for a few minutes, Loki asked, “You’re not going to shoot me with another of your arrows again are you? Because it was quite unpleasant if I may say so.”

Clint just gave him a shit eating grin as he said, “Nah, that was more a reaction to seeing you in the flesh after you mind melded me and hearing you were suppose to be dead. So sorry I shot you with a taser arrow. At least it was better than an explosive one right?”

Loki nodded slowly as he thought about whether Barton had really almost shot him with an exploding arrow. Knowing that Stark was building the archer’s weapons now he wasn’t sure he would have been able to survive that. Before their conversation went any further, Thor came busting through the door.

“J.A.R.V.I.S. informed me that you had awakened brother. How are you feeling? How are you alive? Does the Allfather know?” his questions stopped when Loki held up a hand to forestall him.

“As I’m sure that you and your friends all have questions, I’d like to answer them all at one time so I will not have to repeat myself. Also I am still quite fatigued and need more rest. Would two days be ample time to arrange a gathering for such a purpose?” Loki asked as his eyes started to slide closed, his tired body already wore out from being awake.

Thor nodded his head yes even as his brother’s eyes closed and he fell back asleep. He then turned to Clint, asking, “Did my brother seem to be in any pain Eye of-sorry Clint. I am still trying to remember to not be so formal in my address to my teammates.”

“It’s fine big guy. As to your brother here, no he didn’t seem to be in any pain. Just very tired from what I saw. Though he did ask if I was going to shoot him with another arrow. I told him I wasn’t planning on it. Now I believe we probably go tell everyone tall, dark and green wants to meet with everyone in two days. Wonder what Coulson is going to say?” answered Clint as he got up to leave the room, motioning for Thor to follow him. 

They rode the elevator to the communal floor, finding that them having to say something wasn’t going to be needed as up on the big screen was a view of Loki’s room. Natasha was sitting on a couch sending out texts on a Starkpad for everyone she figured would be needed for the meeting that Loki wanted. She motioned Clint and Thor over, showing them the list of people she had compiled asking if the could think of anyone else to add to the list. Clint had only one suggestion, a Dr Stephen Strange. He knew of the man but hadn’t ever met him so he wasn’t sure how to contact him. It was J.A.R.V.I.S. who provided an answer in the form of a telephone that had been in the files of the SHIELD data dump. 

Thor took it upon himself to call Dr. Strange since it was for his brother they were calling him. When the call was answered, it was to hear a slightly off sounding human voice greet them, “Hello Thor Odinson, my master knows what you would request of him. He shall meet you and your colleagues in two days time. Have a good day and may the Allfather watch over you.” 

Clint looked at both Thor and Natasha before saying, “Well, that wasn’t creepy or anything.”

They informed Steve, Coulson and the rest of the Avengers of what was going on with Loki’s request and the moves they had already made to cover all the bases. Steve approved of everyone they had contacted as did Coulson. After that it was just a matter of waiting.

Two days later

Thor wheeled Loki into the meeting room that the Avengers used to plan missions to see the room packed with more than Coulson, Hill and the other Avengers members. He saw a bald man who was also in a wheelchair and a man in a large red cape to rival Thor’s in size. As soon as he was in place at the end of the table, Loki felt a light touch of magic brush against him before disappearing. He looked to the man in the cape as the man spoke, “He is truly as he appears before us. From the little I felt when probing him, I’d say he has worked great magic recently and exhausted himself excessively.”

“Yes that is true and I shall tell you how that came to happen but first I need to take us back to the time when Thor was to be crowned King during the time Odin was to go into the Odinsleep. I know not if you all have heard the story but the short version is Thor was chosen and I felt he wasn’t ready. I thought he was too hotheaded, stubborn, too warmongering, not ready to lead the people of Asgard. So I let a couple of Frost Giants in the palace figuring the guards were good enough to defend themselves. Alas they were not, I truly did not mean for them to die. The attack disrupted Thor’s coronation, that part of the plan worked.” Loki told them, pausing to take a drink.

Tony took advantage of the pause to ask, “If you thought Thor wasn’t fit to be king, why didn’t you say something? Surely as the other prince your father would have listened to you.”

“Because I was thought of as lesser since I use magic and cunning to fight instead of brute strength. Asgard is a warrior society and magic is considered womanly and underhanded to use in battle. Since I didn’t the strength to defend myself growing up, I would use my magic to play tricks to get back at others. Therefore my title as the God of Mischief. Even though my magic has saved Thor, Sif and the Warriors Three countless times, I was still treated as a lesser person. The only two to defend me were my mother and Thor, though as we grew older he did it less and less as he was heralded as a mighty warrior. So my opinion was often disregarded since I wasn’t a true warrior.” explained Loki, his answer making several Avengers visibly angry and Thor uncomfortable in his seat as he remembered how he had treated his brother. After taking another drink, Loki continued “Now back to Thor’s failed coronation. After the attack, of course Thor declared that this affront couldn’t stand and that we had to retaliate, showing exactly how unfit he was for the throne. Odin declared that the way to Jotunheim be blocked till the matter had been investigated. Thor and his friends decided that they were not going to sit around and do nothing. So they headed off to the Bifrost and I went along to try to talk them out of it or at least minimize the damage. I expected that Heimdall would follow the King’s orders. Only he didn’t, allowing Thor and his friend’s to travel to Jotunheim where we were confronted by a group of Frost Giants. I tried to talk Thor into talking, to not restart the war between our realms, except one of the Frost Giants insulted Thor and of course he just had to attack.” Loki look over at Thor, seeing the man red from embarrassment of his past actions. He then glanced around the room at the other people in the room. As he took in their various expressions, he sighed before continuing, “I don’t tell this to embarrass my brother, but so that you all have the proper background for what I will tell soon. Now where was I? Ah yes, we started fighting the Frost Giants and doing a fair amount of damage to our enemy when one of the Warriors Three, Volstagg was touched by a Frost Giant causing an ice burn due to how cold their bodies are. Just about the same time he shouted his warning I was touched by another one. I expected for it to hurt except all it did was cause my skin and arm to turn blue like theirs was. I was shocked by what happened. Moments later Odin appeared to put a stop to the fighting and take us back to Asgard. There he confronted Thor about his attack on the Frost Giants. He finally saw that Thor wasn’t ready to be King but he then stripped him of his power and sent him to Midgard till he earned his powers back. Meanwhile I was reeling over the fact that I apparently was a Frost Giant and was adopted. I confronted Odin about it and he told he had found me on Jotunheim at the end of the last war and he took me as a war prize, to raise as his own. He then collapsed from pushing back entering the Odinsleep and I was left to take the throne in his place. Only I was undermined left and right, no one wanting to follow my orders. Others were angered that I didn’t lift Odin’s banishment of Thor, which was out of my hands due to the magics involved. I just hoped that Thor would learn his lesson quickly and I could release the throne to him. I just wanted to find someplace to hide to deal with the revelation of my entire life flipping on it’s head. Then Sif and the Warriors Three convinced Heimdall to go against Odin’s orders again to send them to Midgard to retrieve Thor who was busy enjoying the company of Jane Foster and her friends. In desperation to force Thor to regain his powers I sent the Destroyer after him, giving it orders to cause damage but not to cause loss of life. Then the big oaf had to be all noble and sacrifice himself. When I hit him, I misjudged the strength of the machine and almost killed my brother. But he regained his powers so it was worth the risk. At the same time this was all this was happening I had also devised a plan to try to earn some loyalty of the citizens of Asgard by let in the King of Jotunheim, Laufey, into Asgard to kill Odin but stopping him before he could thus saving the King. I only later found out that I saved one father by killing the other one. Turned out I was abandoned as a baby by Laufey cause I was runt. Anyways back to Thor getting his powers back, I delayed his return by freezing Heimdall while I killed Laufey. But they still found a way back just as Odin awakened and condemned me for killing Laufey. His disapproval made me snap and I tried to use the Bifrost to destroy Jotunheim, causing Thor to have to destroy it to stop me. Then we fought and I slipped off the side of the Bifrost only to be caught by Odin as he grabbed Gungnir. I told him I did it all of it to make him proud of me, to do like Thor and destroy the Frost Giants once and all, something not even Thor had done. He wasn’t what he wanted for me, the disappointment on his face causing me to let go and fall in to the Abyss, wanting my life to end.”

Clint spoke up then, “No offense you two but your dad sounds like a real asshat. Definitely could have handled the whole thing better. But I lost as to why there is so much hate for these Frost Giants. What’s up with that?

Thor answered the question by explaining about how Jotunheim tried to take over Midgard thousands of years ago thus them being called gods. Asgard defeated jotunheim and Frost Giants became the monsters that mothers frightened their children with. Suddenly Loki finding out he was one made a lot more sense to everyone. As everyone absorbed the information, J.A.R.V.I.S. told them that lunch was ready and they decided to break for lunch, also giving Loki a chance to prepare himself for the next part of his story, the part not even his brother knew.

After a quick lunch of sandwiches, they all resumed their seats in the meeting room as Loki prepared to tell them how the Battle of New York really came about. He severely doubted they would believe him, but they needed to know the truth so that they could prepare or at least be forewarned. Suddenly he looked at Dr Strange as he swallowed and astonished everyone when he asked, “You are a magic user of some repute. We have even heard of you on Asgard as the magical defender of this realm. So if you were to use your magic to assure that I was speaking the truth, everyone here would believe you if you told them I was telling the truth?”

Dr Strange looked around the room at each person, getting nods from each before turning back to Loki. “Yes I believe they will believe you if I were to use my magic to indicate you were being truthful. I will admit to being intrigued was to what you need to say that you would willingly allow a truth spell to be placed upon you.”

Before anything else could happen Thor was suddenly in front of his brother, blocking him from the view of most of the room. “Brother, you need not do this. I know how much you dislike another laying an enchantment upon you. We ca-“ his words stopped as Loki put a hand up. “If you truly love me as brother, then I must do this. You and they must hear this, now before I am found again. While my mind is free of his influence.”

“Who are you talking about? Share with the rest of the class.” the two brothers heard, their heads snapping to Clint since he asked the question. Coulson and Natasha both ready to yank him back from interrupting the two gods if they took offense.

Nodding his head at Loki, Thor sat back down in his place, resigned to letting his brother come under another’s influence. Unfortunately he didn’t know that his brother had already been under another’s influence and he didn’t know about it.

Loki then look once more at Dr Strange, nodding his head once for the sorcerer to proceed with the spell. Instead of placing a spell on Loki, Strange placed the spell upon the room, making it so that only the truth could be spoken in it and falsehoods would fall upon deaf ears.

Once Strange nodded, Loki started to speak, “I believe we were up to the point where I had fell into the Abyss. Before you ask I will explain, the Abyss is the space between the realms. I believe that humans refer to it as outer space.” the statement making Tony snort in disbelief. Loki just raised his eyebrow at the man prompting him to respond, “Right, you fell into outer space and survived. Tell us another one.”

“Yes I survived. I believe it was because I am Jotun, so my body was partially able to handle the coldness of space. Maybe my inherent magic also protected me. I do not how I survived, just that I did. I had not concept of the time, it felt like time ran differently. It seem I fell forever.” Loki’s eyes started to glaze over as he remember the endless falling, coming back to himself when Thor reached over to squeeze his arm in comfort. “Thank you brother, I am alright now.”

“If I had known you still lived in the Abyss, I would’ve left no place unsearched to find you. We truly thought you were dead. I am sorry you had to go through that.” pleaded Thor, tears in his eyes.

Bruce’s voice cut in to Thor’s pleads, “That wasn’t the worst part was it? Something else happened to you there didn’t it?” When everyone turned to look at him, Bruce said, “I have seen that look on many faces before when I was on the run. In the eyes of children, women and some men, people who have had horrible things happen to them against their will.” quickly everyone’s attention turned back to Loki, waiting to see what he would say.

Loki pulled his arm out of his brother’s grasp, curling into himself as he answered, “I remember being found. I was barely alive at that point, I think my magic was about gone. I had a vague feeling of something touching my ankle, pulling me down. Suddenly I was laying on a rough rocky surface, being dragging across it by one leg. I don’t really know for how long, I kept falling in and out of consciousness. My first real memory after that was awakening in a heap on floor in front of a dais leading to throne, where sat a being that shouldn’t exist. Before me was a Titan. Not just any Titan I learned but the Mad Titan Thanos. I tried to strike out with my magic, hoping to get away. Only I had failed to notice the collar around my neck that blocked my powers. I couldn’t shapeshift, teleport or anything. That was also the moment I was introduced to his servant, the Other. It grabbed my head, making the magic I tried to use against it’s master turn back on myself and hurt me greatly. Thanos stepped down off his throne to stand before me, lifting my chin to look me in the face, telling me that I was going to do him a service. A great energy had recently sprung up on a puny backwater planet. I was to lead his army to destroy the planet and retrieve the energy for him. I spat in his face and told him that I wasn’t some hound to be sent to fetch, hoping to anger him into killing me.”

“Since you’re still here I’m guessing that’s not what happened.” quipped Tony, earning a smack to the back of the head from Steve.

“No. I wished he had killed me. Thanos just smiled as he ordered me to be whipped to almost death. They left me to suffer as bled on the ground, coming later to heal me only to have me slowly skinned till the only skin left was from the neck up, thrown into a cell covered in salt. It became a cycle of torture and healing. The only break from it was when they brought in different species of drug crazed alien to rape or beat me, whatever the drugs made them do. They would just throw them in my cell and slam the door closed. I never knew what to except. He also used the gem in the scepter I had to constantly whisper in my mind, trying to gain some kind of control over me. But I had lock the core of my mind away when the torture started to protect myself. I thought I could survive and find a way to escape eventually.”

He was interrupted by the sound of the arms snapping off of both Steve and Thor’s chairs, both of the men trying to not go off into a Fury filled rampages. They both looked like them were ready to kill someone, preferably Thanos. Most the room wasn’t really all that far behind them.

“If you were resisting, how did you come to do Thanos’s bidding? What changed?” asked Coulson, any grudge he had felt towards Loki long gone as he listened to the god’s story.

Loki closed his eyes as he took a deep breathe to steady himself, “One day they brought me to another cell, chaining me standing to the wall. Next they brought in another person, throwing on the floor starting to beat him. They tortured him in front of my even as I begged them to stop, breaking both of my wrists in my shackles trying to get to him. They took him to the brink of death, healing him before starting the process again. Finally I begged to do what ever it took to stop the torture. I couldn’t take it anymore. It wasn’t until later I found out that it was a shapeshifter taking on the person’s form” He broke down crying as he thought about that time.

“Who could’ve been so important to you that you agreed to help this Thanos?” asked Natasha.

Loki just turned his head to look at Thor, making the other man wail in anguish at the thought of his brother giving in to save him and it all being for nothing. Everyone else was amazed at the depth of love the two brothers held for each other. At Steve’s urging, the rest of the room slipped out to give the two brothers some private time.

Once Thor and Loki calmed down and got themselves under control, they called the others back in to resume the story. “Once I agreed to do as he wanted, Thanos laid strong binding spells upon me and also placed me under light mind control so that he and the Other could control me but still leave me enough free will to be able to react and plan. So I studied your planet, learned all I could as I formed my plan. I found the energy source, the Tesseract. I picked who to take control of, who would be my most likely opposition. I wanted everything to go as smoothly as possible to the end I wanted.”

“You know that has always bothered me. I have talked to Thor about that and you, when we thought you were dead. I figured that a friendly ear would be helpful to help Thor grieve. In all the stories he told of you when you and him were in battles or planning attacks, he always talked about your cunning and how great a strategist you were. The whole plan to get the Tesseract and the invasion, no offense buddy, well it seemed like more of a plan made by Thor. You blast your way in, get the Tesseract, grab some people guaranteed to piss off everyone, make a big spectacle in Germany, get caught, attack us, and make this big show only to lose.” interjected Steve. As everyone started to nodded, he dropped the bomb he had figured out after hearing about Loki being forced into the invasion. “But you weren’t looking to win were you?” causing the room to explode in shock. “You planned it all to fail didn’t you? The flashy entrance, getting caught, having us attacked to make us pull together, opening the portal over New York? They were all calculated moves to do just enough to seem like you were doing what you agreed to do but really sabotaged the whole thing, am I right?”

Loki gave Steve a small smile before answering, “You are quite correct. Thanos saw your world as divided into warring tribes and believed you to be no threat. I on the other hand have been visiting your planet off and on via the Shadow Paths for hundreds of years. I knew there were people with the power to at least make conquering your planet difficult. Also I figured if I lead the invasion I could keep it contained to one area. Thanos would have just ripped the fabric of space all over the planet to let the Chitauri swarm everywhere. I convinced him that by destroying one city that the rest of the planet would simply bow down and he would gain billions of slaves. So he agreed to my plan, trusting that he had me under control. But I’m not the God of Lies for nothing. He had to unlock my magic for me to do what he wanted and once I had that back, I started to carefully unbind myself from him. It has taken me awhile to free myself but I finally did it. As to the invasion plan, I just made sure to shake the hornets nest before hopefully throwing it back in Thanos’s face. The missile was an unexpected bonus.”

“You provoked the Hulk into smashing you into the floor in hopes of breaking the mind control didn’t you? Glad to realize you aren’t as stupid as I had thought.” said Bruce. 

Tony narrowed his eyes as he looked at Loki, “Selvig didn’t just happen to build in a way to shutdown the portal machine did he? Someone probably whispered an idea into his ear at just the right moment.” his observation making Loki smile in answer.

After Loki’s explanation of the Battle of New York, it was decided that they would order in food so everyone could have time to process the new information they had all learned. While everyone broke up into smaller groups to talk, Loki found his way over to where Clint and Natasha were sitting on a couch talking quietly. They both turned to him as he approached them, sitting stoically as he started to speak, “Mr Barton I wish to apologize to you personally for what you went through while I had you under mind control. The others I had under mind control were just pawns. But you and Dr. Selvig were both chosen. Him for his work with the Tesseract and you to make sure SHIELD would make sure to respond.”

“How would taking me make sure that SHIELD would respond to you? I was just another Agent like any other at that base. What made me so important?” Clint asked, a confused look on his face.

“You were one part of your director’s most effective teams. Someone of your skill would be sought for very aggressively. Even if only to keep your lovely partner from burning the world to the ground to get you back. I had to make it personal for part of you from the first so that I could have a chance to make personal for others later. If you would permit me, I’d like to give you this.” explained Loki, reaching out to hand Clint a stone. As Clint took it, Loki explained that it was a healing stone from Asgard. That all he needed to do was sleep with it in the same room near him and it would help to heal the damage done by the mind control, easing his nightmares and insomnia. When Clint asked how Loki even knew about that, Loki told him that he was in the same situation from the mind control from Thanos. 

At the same time Loki was talking to Clint, Steve and Bucky were talking when they were approached by the bald man in the wheelchair, “Hello, my name is Professor Charles Xavier. I believe you have met a friend of mine, Logan?”

“Yeah, James Howlett is the name we know him as though. I’m guessing you’re the Chuck he both praises and bitches about.”

The statement made Charles laugh at the accurate description of his friendship with Logan. “Yes that would be me I guess. As you probably know by now Logan is a mutant, as am I. I am a very powerful telepath. One of the reasons I introduced myself is to meet the men who knew Logan before he lost his memory. Another is it’s not everyday that you meet some of your childhood heros.” the last part make both Steve and Bucky blush. “But the main reason I came over here is to offer to help Mr Barnes. In the meeting with Loki, I felt a lot of strong emotions. But besides the ones coming from Mr Odinson and Mr Laufeyson, the strongest were coming from Mr Barnes. I don’t usually listen to someone without their permission, but you were thinking very loud and hard so it was hard to miss.”

Bucky tensed at the thought of someone being in his mind with out permission. Steve stepped in front of his friend, getting slightly into the Professor’s space. Charles quickly continued as the two men prepared to walk away, “You want to be able to join the Avengers on missions, to protect your friend and destroy HYDRA. But you fear that you would be a danger to them because you might still have hidden triggers to control you. I would like to offer to delve into your mind and erase any hidden triggers so that you could be sure that you are your own man completely.”

Steve’s mouth had fell open in shock at the Professor’s offer while Bucky had an almost greedy look on his face at the thought of being completely free of any HYDRA control. “How soon could you do this? Where and when?” asked Bucky.

“I could do it now if you want. Lay down on the couch over there with your head on the arm so that I can reach your head. Being able to touch your temples helps me to focus in on your mind.” Charles answered, moving over to the end of the couch as Bucky laid down. Charles placed his fingers on Bucky’s head as he delved into the man’s mind. He quickly scanned through Bucky’s mind erasing the hidden triggers he found and also helping to reconnect some of the scrambled memories too, putting in mental blocks that would let Bucky slowly remember without being bombard with the memories all at once. He also made it so that the Winter Soldier was more of a mindset Bucky could call on than the warring entity the hidden triggers had made it.

When he felt the Professor pull out of his mind, Bucky was surprised to find his mind quiet for the first time since he woke up from HYDRA’s control. As he sat up on the couch he felt tears of gratitude running down his cheeks. When he felt a hand on his shoulder, he looked up to see that Steve had a few tears on his face. “Professor if you ever need anything from me, all you need to do is call and I will be there. Words can’t express what you have done for me.” exclaimed Bucky, shaking Charles’s hand. Steve told him the same thing, that if he ever needed them, to just call.

At the same time Steve and Bucky were thanking Charles, Sam suddenly asked out loud to Tony, “Ok I understand what happened between Thor and Loki and the whole deal with this Thanos guy. But did I miss why Thor thought Loki was dead?”

Thor overheard Sam’s question and it prompted him to wonder how his brother had survived on Svartalfheim. “Brother Son of Wil makes an excellent point. How did you survive on Svartalfheim?”

Before Loki could answer the was a loud thundering sound accompanied with a bright light out on the balcony. Once it disappeared, Sif and the Warriors Three could be seen standing outside. But the most astonishing sight was Queen Frigga standing behind them, which caused Thor to actually faint dead in the middle of the floor. Loki called him a drama queen causing Tony to snort scotch through his nose, making him bitch about the burning, effectively breaking the tension in the room. Thor’s friends rushed forward to check on him while Natasha just tossed a glass of water in his face causing him to snap awake and rapidly spring to his feet. When he laid his eyes on Frigga again croaked out, “M-Mother? How is such a thing possible? You were dead.”

“Not completely dead. I had a small spark of life left, but the blade Malekith stabbed me with was cursed and slowly finishing the job. The healers could only barely keep me alive with the curse in my body. Odin even transferred his energy into me in hopes of healing me. Loki is the one who finally exorcized the curse out of my body and soul. It took all of his magic and most of Odin’s energy to accomplish it. Odin is currently in the Odinsleep once again recovering.” Frigga told her oldest son.

“That’s awesome and all, but still doesn’t explain how Reindeer Games survived being stabbed.” drawled Tony, causing Pepper to smack him up side the head.

“Oh that’s actually quite easy. Because Loki is a Jotun, his body is able to shut down when severely injured and put him into a healing state. Because he had never been injured that badly before, Thor didn’t know that is what had happened. I hear when he slipped back in to the palace and revealed himself to Odin it was quite that shock. He’s actually the one you talked to when you made your speech about not wanting the throne, when he gave you permission to return to Midgard. Odin has since saw fit to give his backing to it.” answered Frigga.

“If Loki was helping you and father, how did he come to be here, drained of magic and barely able to move?” asked Thor as he stood in front of his brother just in case someone tried to get to him to take him back to Asgard.

Frigga sighed even as she was pleased that Thor was protecting his brother, “When Loki was able to finally pull the curse from my body, he was so drained of magic and energy that his image of Odin he had been maintaining fell and a guard saw him. The Elder Council tried to arrest him once again since he had technically escaped. Loki used the last of his magic to flee into the Shadow Paths and I guess he figured that you and the Avengers wouldn’t harm him on sight. But that is no longer a problem he has to worry about. Odin has pardoned him for helping to save the Queen officially. In reality, we were able to listen to his story as he told through Heimdall, Huginn and Muninn. My only question to Loki is why you never told us any of this when you were sentenced before for your crimes?”

“Because part of the spells Thanos placed upon me was being unable to speak about it. They only disappeared on Svartalfheim when I went into the healing state. My guess is that it shut my body down to a near death state and it was enough to trick them into disappearing at my ‘death’.” Loki said with a shrug.

“So your not here to take Loki then? Then may I ask why you, Sif and the Warriors Three are here then?” asked Steve from the side of the room.

Frigga smiled at him thinking he was a fine leader for this group, ready to protect them even if it was from Thor’s own people. “I’m here to visit with my sons since I haven’t seen them in quite some time. As to Sif and the Warriors Three, I am Queen, therefore I travel with a guard, but they all wanted to come so that they could see their friends.”

Just then the Bifrost opened up again as it delivered several large casks of Asgardian ale. Volstagg lifted one as cheered that they were going to drink to both new and old friends. That started off a party that rivaled even one of Tony’s parties from the past. Steve and Bucky found out they could get drunk from Asgardian ale, as they sang some very lewd songs from when they were with the Howling Commandos. Tony had J.A.R.V.I.S. record the whole thing.


	16. Chapter 15

Days after the impromptu party with Queen Frigga and Thor’s friends, the Avengers were going over the information that Coulson and Hill were able to get out of Whitehall about HYDRA. They were being joined by Sif and the Warriors Three, who had learned of their upcoming battles during the party, insisting on helping out their shield brother and his friends. Frigga had given her permission before return to Asgard, telling them they were under Captain America’s command if they stayed. 

“Ok from what we got from Whitehall, these four bases seem to be the most urgent targets. One is a heavy weapons plant that needs to be shut down with extreme prejudice. Ironman, Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye will be going there. I don’t care if you leave it a crater in the ground, shut it down. According to the info they seem to be trying to replicate SHIELD’s Phase Two weapons, so be careful ok?” Steve explained as he gave the first assignment of the simultaneous raids they were going to be executing.

“Will do Cap. Once Tasha makes it out after wiping their systems, Ironass and Mean Green can treat it like one of Tony’s labs.” answered Clint, getting a light kick in the ass from Tony for calling him an ass.

Steve grinned at Clint before dropping back into Captain America mode, “Alright knock it off you two. Next Thor, Sif and the Warriors Three. I’m sending you with Agent Hill as your pilot since only Thor can fly to a smaller facility where Whitehall has informed us that HYDRA is trying to make their own supersoldiers and enhanced humans. We’ve been told that everyone there is a volunteer so trust no one and wreck their world. Any questions?” 

Fandral spoke up at the prompt, “We are great warriors, why are we being sent to a lesser area?”

Thor spoke up before Steve could, “Fandral, I trust the Captain’s judgement. If I had to guess, I’d say he is sending us there because we are sturdier than other’s and more able to survive if something unexpected appears. So it is not doubt but trust in our abilities that made Steven assign us this task.”

Steve nodded in assent before going on, “Myself, the Winter Soldier, Falcon and Wolverine will be hitting another base where they are training regular soldiers and some of their leadership is suppose to be in place. The plan there is to hopefully capture them and disrupt whatever they are planning. We’ll also have a team of SHIELD agents with us to help with any prisoners. Next Coulson and Agent May are going to be working with the X-Men to raid a lab where we’ve been told that HYDRA is experimenting on mutants.”

Before Steve could continue, Skye came flying into the room. She spotted Coulson and rushed over to whisper in his ear. As soon as she was done talking, Coulson asked her if she was sure, getting a nod in responds. After sending her back out of the room, Coulson stood up to speak, “Steve, Skye has just informed me of the reappearance of someone we have been searching for since the fall of SHIELD. A woman by the name of Raina, she worked closely with Garret when he was pretending to be the Clairvoyant. Before we joined you here, we discovered she had came into possession of a 0-8-4 that turns anyone who touches it to stone. This is the first break on her we’ve had since. If it’s ok with you I believe that my team and myself should track her down. Who knows when we’ll see her again if we don’t take this chance. I’m sure the X-Men can handle it without us. Probably better even without having to worry about us being in the way.”

Before Steve could answer Sif asked, “What does 0-8-4 mean?”

Coulson answered, “It’s SHIELD code for an object of unknown origin. Sorry I’m so use to using the term that it’s automatic. This one was in storage at a SHIELD facility and was stolen. It’s a silver obelisk about three feet tall. Our fear is HYDRA trying to weaponize it somehow. What’s with those looks?” he asked after noticing the looks on the asgardians’ face at the description of the object.

Thor answered, “If what you describe is what we think it is, it is very dangerous. But without seeing it we can’t be sure. If you don’t mind, could Sif accompany you on your mission. She would be able to identify if it is what we think it is. She will be able to contain or destroy it if it comes down to it to keep it out of our enemy’s hands.”

“Ok Coulson, Sif and your team track down this woman and stop her. I’ll get a hold of Professor Xavier to let him know what is going on. Everyone else is still a go in their assignments. Gear up and let’s get to our assigned areas. I don’t know about you all, but I’m ready to give HYDRA a swift kick in the nuts.” decided Steve. His last statement caused a lot of mouths to fall open.

“Whoa, who pulled the stick out of Cap’s ass? Cause I’d like to but them a drink.” quipped Tony, causing Bucky to flip him off as he muttered, “Fucking punk isn’t the goodie two shoes everyone thinks he is.” which caused Bruce to snort tea out of his nose as he laughed at Tony and Bucky.

After that everyone rapidly scattered to make ready to depart for their missions. Coulson lead Sif and May down to the labs to see if FitzSimmons had a way for them to safely handle the obelisk when they found it. Fitz immediately pulled out a sturdy pair of gloves that had some kind of dampeners in them. Simmons gave them upgraded ICER ammo and grenades so they could knockout anyone who tried to use the obelisk against them. After the labs the three of them headed to the SHIELD floor to grab Skye and a team to back them up so that Raina didn’t escape. So after less than thirty minutes after learning her location they were in the air. When May asked where to go, Skye told her “Puerto Rico”

 

As Coulson and his team were winging their way south, the three Avengers teams were on their ways to each of their mission sites. Steve called professor Xavier to let him know about the change of plans only for they man to tell him he already knew because he had been using Cerebro to check on the mutants they were going to rescue and he gleaned the change of plans from Logan. Professor Xavier informed Steve they were ready and just awaiting the signal to proceed. Steve told him that as soon as the other teams were ready they would be going forward.

Soon after Captain America’s team arrived at their location they heard that the other two teams besides the X-Men were in position. With a nod of readiness from Sam, Bucky and Logan, Steve gave the go ahead to start the attacks. immediately after Steve said go, Bucky quickly shot the guards at the entrance to the base while Sam did a fly by, dropping explosives at the gate to blow it open as Steve and Logan rushed the base. As soon as they made a little ways inside, it became obvious that while the soldiers in the base believed in HYDRA wholeheartedly, they didn’t know the first thing about fighting. Steve and Logan were barely breaking a sweat and when Sam and Bucky joined in they all tore through the troops like wet tissue paper. Which is why they were able to catch most of the leadership at the base before they could make much of an escape. Barely thirty minutes pasted before Steve was calling in the retrieval team to pick up prisoners to be taken where they would be interrogated to see what info could be gotten out of them. 

As the prisoners were being loaded into transports, Steve started checking in with the other teams. The first he checked In with was the X-Men since he hadn’t ever worked with them, he wanted to make sure they were doing ok. His worry was completely unfounded as the X-Men were just finishing up destroying their assigned base and transporting the rescued mutants back to the Xavier Institute. The Dr. McCoy he spoke with was very understanding about Steve’s need to check up on the team since they hadn’t worked together before. 

With a successful report from the X-men, Steve next checked in with Black Widow to see how their raid went. Her and Hawkeye reported the only bump in the road was when a few guards started to intermittently fire some of the energy weapons at them making Tony scream across the coms, “I KNOW YOU AREN’T SHOOTING THAT BLUE SHIT AT ME!!!.” Natasha then went on to describe how Tony scooped up Bruce and took off at the factory at top speed, flinging a quickly transforming Hulk at it like a high speed cruise missile. They were currently waiting for Hulk to change back while Tony was doing his best to completely turn the whole place into melted slag. Clint was making smores over a fire while they waited, feeding them to both the Hulk and Natasha she laughed into the coms just before signing off.

With a shake of his head and a smile, Steve called Maria Hill to see how the Asgardians were faring on their own. With a sigh Maria told Steve that she had some good news, news, and bad news. Pinching the bridge of his nose, Steve told her to just tell him. Taking a deep breath Maria started to report, “Ok, the news is that Loki stowed away with the rest of the team. Turns out that was a good thing or this fight would have turned out differently. They had a young woman here that was able to enter the other’s minds and basically shut them down. That’s when Loki reveled himself and stormed into the fight. He was able to counter act the woman’s influence and get the others back into the fight. That’s when we found out that she had a brother that can run at superspeed. He clocked Fandral pretty good and I thought we were screwed. Loki and Thor just looked at each other and nodded. Next thing I know is the woman is unconscious on the ground and her brother is laying pinned down by Thor’s hammer. After that it’s like HYDRA just released every monstrosity they had cause a flood of barely human creatures attacked them from all around. But they didn’t stand a chance against the combined forces of Thor and his friends, who showed why they are called the Warriors Three. The bad news is I recognized one of the test subjects as Brock Rumlow and he seemed to retain his mind. He seemed to be fighting on our side as he tore into the ranks of monsters we were fighting, only for it to turn out he was just looking to escape in the confusion. Ok, good news. The facility is completely wiped off the map and we have the young woman and man sedated for transport to the tower cause we’re not sure if regular restraints would hold them. So maybe we can get some info out of them.”

Steve thought it over and decided that it could have been worse, which he told Maria. After tell her that they would see them at the tower, he told Sam that he wanted one more sweep from the air while Steve, Bucky and Logan headed to the Quinjet and to meet them there so they could head home. Once they arrived at the back of the Quinjet, Logan suddenly stopped and popped his claws making both Steve and Bucky go battle ready in an instant. Before anyone could make another move a voice that Steve hadn’t heard since D.C. came floating out of the Quinjet, “I knew Stark was holding out on us when he produced our Quinjets. This one is definitely better. Hello Captain, good to see you. Logan long time no see. Mr Barnes, nice to meet you when you aren’t trying to kill me.”

“Fury, what are you doing here, breaking into our jet? Last I heard, you were ghosting around Europe, taking out HYDRA bases.” asked Steve, in full on Captain America voice. Before Fury answered though, Logan growled out, “Better question is who is the guy that smells like smoke and metal who is on the plane with you? Enhanced senses remember?”

Fury just glared at Logan as he motioned someone forward, said person turning out to be a half black man/half cyborg who stepped up beside Fury. What happened next totally surprised both Fury and the part cyborg as Steve said, “Mike Peterson, it’s nice to meet you face to face. Coulson has told me many good things about you. He said you were trying to make up for the things you did while under Garret’s control. Didn’t know he had sent you to Fury.”

Mike smiled as he responded “Coulson didn’t exactly send me to Fury so much as gave me a list of suspected HYDRA cells and we crossed paths. We both decided it would be beneficial to work together since we were after the same people.”

“Translation Coulson sent you to watch my ass while also getting to help take down HYDRA. Now that we’ve all met, can we get on with getting the fuck out of here? As long as you’re ok with us hitching a ride?” Fury retorted.

Steve smirked as he answered “No problem. We don’t mind giving you a ride at all. Sam you can land now and get us in the air.” Sam landed almost before the words had left Steve’s mouth, hitting the ground at a fast walk as he shrugged off his wings and headed to the cockpit to get the Quinjet in the air. The rest of them quickly boarded and strapped in as Sam got the jet in air and on the way home. Once they were on course, Logan, Steve and Bucky headed to the cockpit to talk to Sam, each of them laying bets on who was going to punch Fury first. Sam and Steve both bet on Tony while Logan said he thought Clint would throw the first punch. When they all looked to Bucky he simply said “Pepper” before walking back to his seat to watch a seemlily sleeping Fury. 

 

While the raids on the HYDRA bases were going on, Coulson and his team were preparing to enter the underground ruins of a city to find Raina and the obelisk she had. FitzSimmons quickly released the D.W.A.R.F.s to do am initial scan before anyone entered. From the scan results it became apparent that Raina wasn’t trying to hide her tracks as she moved through the maze of the ruins. Coulson, May, Skye and Sif quickly readied themselves to chase down Raina while FitzSimmons stayed outside to monitor the situation with their equipment. 

After about ten minutes of moving through the ruins Fitz broke the silence to inform them that a small team of mercenaries were just ahead of them. Coulson silently called a stop with a upheld hand so they could make a plan of attack which became a moot point when Sif simply kicked a pillar over which resulted in a wall collapsing on top of the mercenaries. When Coulson looked at her with a raised eyebrow, Sif shrugged and said “We’re in a hurry aren’t we?” making Skye laugh and May kick up one side of her mouth. Shaking his head with a grin as he mumbled “Asgardians” under his breath, Coulson had them move out at a more rapid pace to try to catch Raina before she did whatever she was trying to do with obelisk.

Soon they came upon Raina in some kind of a room with a pedestal in the middle of it. To the surprise of everyone, Raina was holding the obelisk barehanded, not being turned to stone like anyone else they had seen touch it. Coulson quickly stepped forward to try to talk to the young woman in a bid to stop her from doing whatever she was going to do. Raina just shook her head saying “This is my destiny”, reaching out to place the obelisk on the pedestal, prompting Sif to grab Coulson and May, tossing them both out of the room as a green mist started to appear in the air. Sif then pulled her shield and sword, intent on destroying the obelisk, when she noticed that Skye had not escaped like she thought. The young woman was frozen into a stone humanoid shape as was Raina, causing Sif to be saddened since she liked the young hacker as a semi-younger sister. With this heavy feeling in her heart, Sif took a deep breath of clear air before rushing forward to bring her sword down on the obelisk and ducking behind her shield to protect herself from the shrapnel caused by her blow to the obelisk.

With the obelisk destroyed, the door to the room was able to be reopened admitting both Coulson and May as well as FitzSimmons in the form of their D.W.A.R.F.s The anguish on both Coulson and May’s faces as they saw what had happened to Skye proved that the two of them had come to think of the young woman as a daughter. The wail of Jemma Simmons could heard across the coms could be heard by everyone as she caught sight of the woman she considered a sister, breaking everyone’s hearts even further. So when the voice of Leo Fitz came across the coms saying, “Uh, everyone? Not to get everyone’s hopes up, but according to Doc and Happy, both Skye and Raina are alive inside those shells. But there is some strange energy readings coming from both of them.” the young Scottish man’s words froze everyone for a few moments. 

The stunned silence was broken by the sound of cracking rock as the stone covering Skye started to shake and crumble from around her, the young woman crumpling as the stone that was holding her up disappeared from around her. Sif barely beat Coulson in catching Skye before she hit the ground, easing her to the ground so they could check her over. When May glanced over to check on Rain, she discovered that the shell covering the two women didn’t come off the same for both of them since where Raina stood was just a pile of dark looking sand with a trail leading towards the doorway showing which way she had went. May was just about to have Fitz search for Raina when he spoke up to say he had been tracking Raina when there was a flash of light and energy. Next thing he saw was a giant dog with a glowing antenna on its head that reached out grabbing Raina’s arm gently in it’s mouth before another flash of light and energy showed that they had disappeared from his sensors.

Raina’s disappearance took a back burner however when suddenly an earthquake started to shake the ground, causing Sif to quickly cover Skye’s vulnerable body with her shield to protect her. The earthquake kept getting stronger as Skye started to wake up. As the team worried about getting out alive, Skye suddenly sat up with a gasp, throwing out her hands to ward off something from when she was unconscious causing the wall in front of her to start shaking harder as it broke apart but stopping the earthquake in it tracks. 

As she watched the wall fall to pieces wondering how that happened, Skye was surprised by Sif’s hand on her shoulder as the woman lean in to ask if she was OK. So it was an accident that caused Skye to turn her new powers on the Asgardian woman, throwing her back into the pedestal the obelisk had been setting on. Once she realized that she was causing the shaking around them, Skye started to panic causing the earthquake to reappear even stronger. As the young woman was being talked down by both Coulson and Sif, May suddenly shot Skye with an ICER, knocking her out and stopping the earthquake. May said she was sorry but the ruins were starting to fall in around them and it was the quickest way to stop Skye from killing them at the moment. 

After a tense a moment after May shot Skye, Coulson just nodded his acceptance as Sif scooped up an unconscious Skye to head out of the unsteady ruins. They rapidly made their way back to the entrance of the ruins where they met back up with FitzSimmons who already had their equipment ready to transport back to the Quinjet. Once they were back on the Quinjet, Simmons started to check over Skye to see if they could determine what was causing Skye’s powers. May got the Quinjet in the air and on it’s way back to New York where they hopefully would be able to find out what was going on with Skye.


	17. Chapter 16

Wanda found herself waking up laying on a cot in a very high tech cell, her brother doing laps in another one at such a high speed he was actually running on the walls. She slowly looked around, the last thing she remembered was trying to enter the mind of a tall black haired man when the base they were kept at was attacked. Her and Pietro had a plan in place to escape when the opportunity presented itself or so she thought. The drugs they kept her on clouded her mind sometimes. She was going to immobilize the attackers and when the scientists that ran the base let loose their experiments to attack, her and Pietro were going to use the confusion to take off. The last thing she remembered was being overwhelmed when she glimpsed into that man’s mind. She quickly shook the cobwebs out as a man stepped up to the window of the cell.

“Hello, I’m-“ Tony started to say before he was interrupted.

Wanda started yelling “We know who you are Mr Stark. If you think you will be able to keep us here, you are mistaken. While we maybe locked in here right now, you can’t hold-“ 

“The doors are unlocked. We had an emergency when we were moving you into the tower and these decontamination chambers were the closest place with a bed in them at the time. Your not prisoners. That’s what I was going to say. Also if you want something to eat, the elevator is to the right through the lab. Just ask J.A.R.V.I.S. to take you to the communal floor. Alright bye.” interjected Tony as he turned on his heel to head out of the lab leaving Wanda speechless. 

On his way out he remembered to grab the portable scanner Bruce wanted down in the Hulk out room where they were checking out Skye and her new earthquake power. She still could shake the room, just not very well since the make up of adamantium was so dense and the bonds were so tight. Also they found out that Cap’s shield absorbed her blasts accidently when Steve came to check on her when he heard about what happened and startled her. So she was currently sitting in the middle of the floor in the Hulk out room, holding onto Captain America’s shield like a toddler with it’s favorite toy. (Coulson would’ve been jealous if he wasn’t so worried about Skye.)

This is the scene that Wanda and Pietro found after they walked out of the decontamination chambers they woke up in. When Wanda asked Pietro why he didn’t check the door when he woke up, he told her that it hadn’t even occurred to him that the door could be unlocked. With the life they had so far she could see his point. So after Pietro sped up the stairs to make and grab them some sandwiches. (Clint thought a fucking ghost attacked him in the kitchen until J.A.R.V.I.S. informed him it had been Pietro.) If asked later why they decided to follow Tony Stark down into the Hulk out room, Wanda would say she felt she had to be there and Pietro would just shrug as to say “I just go where she tells me”. But it would the first moment that Wanda would see she could use her power for something good and not just pain and fighting.

They watched Tony walk across the room to hand the scanner to Bruce Banner, as he knelt next to a dark haired woman who was holding Captain America’s shield for some reason. Like some compulsion had gripped her, Wanda suddenly handed her sandwich to her brother as she moved forward, stepping up to the side of the woman and placing her hand on her head so fast no one could stop her. Just as Steve reached out to grab her, his wrists were grabbed by Pietro, who had already ate his sister’s sandwich and ran across the room to stop him, who told him touching Wanda right now as she channeled her magic would be a very bad idea. As soon as he stopped speaking Skye gasped and released Steve’s shield to look at her hands before turning to suddenly hug Wanda as she whispered “Thank you” over and over again.

“Ok, I am officially confused. What just happened? That’s it! Pulling a Cap, everyone into a group. We are debriefing and figuring out what the hell happened in the last few hours.” yelled Tony, both of his eyebrows trying to climb to his hairline. 

“Uh Tony, not to be an ass, but shouldn’t these two be in cells somewhere. Thor and his friends did fight them today. Now they’re wandering around the tower, eating what looks like my thick cut ham on sandwiches.” asked Steve pointing at Wanda and Pietro. 

Tony waved him off as he started to walk out of the room excepting everyone to follow, saying “Thor said they were half out of it on the way back, mumbling about how they were sorry about any hurt they caused, that they just wanted to escape. Point break vouches for them, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. They cause trouble, it’s Thor’s ass that Pepper will chew on not mine.” As he finished talking, Tony motioned for everyone to crowd into the elevator, making it a tight fit as Skye, Steve, Bruce, Coulson, May, Wanda and Pietro joined him. He asked J.A.R.V.I.S. to take them to the communal floor so he could get a drink and they all could talk. 

Once there they all sat down on the couches spread around the room, Wanda looked around, realizing that her and her brother were sitting in Avenger’s tower with some of them and that somehow they weren’t locked up. “Excuse me but what do you plan to do with us? Are we allowed to leave? Or is this all some kind of ruse to loll us into a false sense of security so you can get info out of us? Because we don’t know anything, we were their lab rats not with them.” she asked looking and sensing for any kind of deceit from the people around them.

It was Steve that answered her, “From my understanding, you are free to leave at anytime you want. Though if I might ask, where will you go since we just rescued you two from HYDRA?” 

“We could go to Uncle Charles. He might know where dad is.” blurted out Pietro, jumping into the conversation.

“Your dad? You guys have his number? We could have J.A.R.V.I.S. contact him for you, let him know you guys are alive and safe.” interjected Tony as he swirled his scotch in his glass.

Before anyone else could talk, a voice that made both twins spin around in surprise spoke up, “Their father doesn’t have a number. His power make it impossible for him to use a cell phone. I think Chuck would have a better chance of finding him.”

Both twins jumped up to rush forward to hug Logan as they screamed, “Uncle Logan!”, which caused Tony to spray Bruce with scotch when he heard. Skye mouthed “Uncle Logan?” to Coulson who had went wide eyed at the outburst.

“You know their father? And them? Talk about a small world. I assume he’s a mutant since you said he had powers. Anyone we know?” asked Steve as he pounded on Tony’s back to help him catch his breath.

“Yeah. Magneto.” replied Logan.

“Well fuck. This should be interesting. Better call Xavier and let him know they’re here so he can try to find Magneto before he founds out on his own. I really don’t want to find out what he could do to a skyscraper with his powers, especially if he was mad.” Bruce said to everyone’s surprise as he wiped his glasses off. 

“While I agree it’s better to contact the twins father sooner than later, what I want to know is what Ms Maximoff did to Skye? One moment it’s all Skye can do to not shake the building apart and the next it’s like she never had any problem at all. Also I want to know how Skye got powers. Are they permanent or temporary?” Coulson said bringing his concerns to the discussion as May rubbed the tension in his shoulders from beside him. 

Wanda turned from where she and Pietro were hugging a slightly smiling Logan, “I just looked into her mind and saw she couldn’t control her power. If she just acquired them, it’s understandable that was happening. Her mind didn’t know how to make the connection. So I just taught her mind how to turn it off and on. She will still have to learn how to use them.”

“So basically you installed an on/off switch?” joked Tony at the simple way she explained it. Bruce reached over and flicked him upside his head for the comment before asking, “Thank you Wanda, I’m glad you were able to help. As to Phil’s other question as to how Skye got the power in the first place. Now that you aren’t trying to shake the building down, lets go over what happened before you got them. Try to figure out what triggered them.”

Suddenly there was a muffled pop and the smell of brimstone, Nightcrawler and Charles Xavier appearing in the room. Both Wanda and Pietro rushed Charles to hug him as he laughed and hugged them back, telling them how glad he was that they were safe. “I can’t tell you how grateful I am that you rescued these two. Both me and Erik have been looking for them for months. Erik is not going to be pleased that HYDRA had them. I suspect that they will be very hard pressed when Erik catches up with them, especially anyone that hurt them.”

“From what I understand, their father might have a hard time finding anyone in that regard. Our resident god and his friends wiped them and the lab from the face of the earth. Said that such an evil place needed to be destroyed as a message that such things wouldn’t be tolerated.” Tony provided in response to the Professor’s statement. 

“I usually don’t condone such responses as that, but in this case I believe it was warranted. Even the scientists that were testing on the mutants we rescued earlier just wanted to figure out how our powers come into being. I can understand curiosity, but what little I’ve seen in Wanda and Pietro’s minds is enough for me to be glad those monsters are gone. Now, Wanda is nudging my mind, wanting me to help young Ms Skye here find out how she got powers.”

“We were just getting ready to discuss that ourselves, try to figure out what happened. In your opinion Professor, could she be a late blooming mutant?” replied Bruce as the rest of the group listened to the two men, Skye especially paying attention to find any answers.

“Lets hear what happened when she acquired them but in my opinion I’m going to lean towards no. People with the X gene get their powers at around puberty unless they are just a carrier that can pass it on in rare cases. I would guess you would already know if she had it before now. It’s standard to test for it in any type of blood test now a days since more and more mutants are popping up around the world.” Charles answered, getting several nods in agreement. After that Coulson and Skye explained the mission they went on to stop Raina and everything that happened during. Once Coulson mentioned the giant dog that Fitz saw on one of his cameras disappearing with Raina, Charles got a thoughtful look on his face.

Coulson noticed this, prompting him to ask “Professor what is it? Does this dog mean something to you?”

“I think it might. But I think we need to consult with someone before I can confirm anything. Tony would you happen to have a way to contact the Baxter Building per chance?” answered Coulson before turning to look over to Tony.

“Really? We have to call Reed Richards? He is such a pompous ass.” whined Tony, making Steve grin at Tony calling someone else an ass.

“Ah I don’t wish to contact Reed but his brother in law, Johnny Storm.” Charles replied.

“You mean the guy who looks like Captain America? How could he help?” asked Skye as she listened to he conversation, trying to figure out where this was leading.

“I guess we’ll find out. J.A.R.V.I.S. contact the Baxter Building and ask if Johnny Storm could join us here at the tower. Also tell him if he burns my fricking building again when he lands on the balcony I’ll turn DUM-E loose on him with a fire extinguisher.” snarked Tony.

Soon a flying ball of flames was streaking towards the tower, revealing itself to be human shaped as it got closer. Soon it was over the balcony, quickly turning from a fiery humanoid to a blond hair, blue eyed man who then walked inside to see what Tony Stark could want with him. “Hiya Stark. What can I help you with that Reed couldn’t?”

Charles turned his chair towards the young man as he said, “It was me that actually wanted to talk with you Mr Storm. My name is Professor Charles Xavier I believe you might be able confirm something for us or at least point us in the right direction for some answers. Mr Coulson could you please describe the dog you saw to Mr Storm?”

With a confused look on his face Johnny looked at the unassuming man in the suit, the confusion slowly giving way to astonishment at what he was hearing. “Lockjaw. You saw Lockjaw retrieving an awakened Inhuman. That means someone released some of the Terrigen Mist. Was anyone hurt or injured? Anyone killed? That stuff can be dangerous to normal people.”

“Thank you Mr Storm for confirming my suspicions about the identity of the creature in question. Thankfully no was injured. But this young woman here, Skye, was exposed and acquired powers. Should we be concerned about her, her health, any other changes or anything else?” Charles answered with a nod of his head in thanks.

“As far as I know she should be fine in that regard. The chrysalis that forms around someone exposed to the Terrigen Mist who has Inhuman genes activates their powers and any other changes in a very short amount of time. Once it releases the person, there shouldn’t be any more changes. However she will be stronger, more sturdy, resistant to most human diseases and probably live longer now. If there is more you want to know I can call my ex girlfriend Crystal. She is an Inhuman, actually part of their royal family. She’d want to know so that they can come collect her to take her to their city now that she has been awakened to her Inhuman heritage.” Johnny answered the Professor before trailing off at the end as he started talking to himself lost in thought.

Unfortunately for Johnny his mumbling was heard by a certain supersoldier who hearing was very sharp. “Excuse me Mr Storm, but why would these Inhumans come to take Skye? She is perfectly safe here with us. We can help her to understand and train her power. Plus all her family and friends are here. Why would she need to be ripped away from all that?” Steve asked, pinning Johnny with his very best Captain America stare, the one that said he wouldn’t stand for any bullshit, just the truth.

Squirming under Captain America’s stare, Johnny answered him, “As far as I know, once someone that is not born in to their society is awakened, they are taken to be tested to find out their powers and whether it is safe for them to leave or if they are a danger to the outside world. Also once they become Inhuman, they become automatic members of their society and fall under their laws and rules. Of course most people don’t have a group such as yourselves around to support them. Most go willingly to learn to control their powers and find acceptance in that world. What I’m wondering is if Skye here awakened at the same time as that Raina woman, why didn’t Lockjaw take her too?”

With a loud pop, a voice from the balcony answered Johnny’s question, “Because if we did, we would be hard pressed to fight the Avengers and X-Men when they came to rescue her. Allow me to introduce myself before anyone thinks to attack. My name is Medusalith Amaquelin Boltagon, Queen and wife of the King of the Inhumans. You may call me Medusa to make it easier to talk to each other.” said the tall red haired woman as she glided into the room, her hair seeming to move on its own as it touched the floor. “As to who is with me, this is my sister Crystalia Amaquelin better known as Crystal by Mr Storm. We came to discuss the matter of what to do about the one known as Daisy Johnson.”

“Uh, I’m sorry to tell you but there is no one here by that name.” said Coulson, wondering exactly was going on as were others around the room. 

“How can you say that? She is clearly sitting on that sofa right next to you. Why would you try to lie to me in such a fashion?” retorted Medusa, her hair starting to flail around as her temper rose.

Skye stood to defend Coulson as she spoke through gritted teeth, “Director Coulson is not lying to you. My name is Skye. I have never known my actual name, just the one I picked for myself when I aged out of Foster care at eighteen. So why do you think that this ‘Daisy Johnson’ is my name?”

Medusa seemed to be surprised at Skye’s outburst, shocked that this young woman didn’t know her own name. Their seers hadn’t foreseen this happening. Of course they weren’t infallible either. “It was the name given to us when our seers had seen that you would awaken into your Inhuman heritage, in the company of heros and through your presence we would forge lines of communication between our groups to help our understanding of each other. The time of us hiding ourselves is rapidly coming to a close and we would rather that there be a foundation of friendship before that happens.”

“So you’re telling me that Daisy Johnson is my actual real name? All the searching about who I am I’ve done and you just show up and tell me it? Of course that’s what happens. Nothing in my life ever goes normally does it?” asked Skye disbelievingly, the building starting to shake as she got upset. Suddenly Medusa’s sister Crystal stepped forward, her arms spread to show they were empty, “Skye, if I may call you that, you need to clear your mind and pull back your power so that you aren’t shaking the building down around our heads.”

Getting more scared as the shaking got worse, causing everyone else in the room to stumble around or grip on to their seats, Skye hugged herself to try to control her new power. When it looked like she wouldn’t be able to do it, Crystal sudden reached out to grab her arm as she called for Lockjaw who ran forward to touch Crystal’s outstretched hand and disappeared with both women. Their disappearance caused the building to stop shaking while also causing the gathered people to also immediately jump up to demand where Skye had been taken. J.A.R.V.I.S. provided the answer to the question saying that Skye had appeared in an area farther north near some mountains. Tony quickly pulled up some satellite feeds to see what was happening to her. They all watched as pillars of earth rose up out of the ground only to be destroyed as Skye pointed her hands at them. They could see Crystal motioning like she was trying to explain what to do. 

“I believe that Crystal did what she thought was best to ensure the safety of all involved. A person with newly awaked powers, if they manifest outwards like Skye’s have, can be dangerous until they learn some control which is why they are usually given a mentor to help them who has similar powers. Crystal is able to completely control fire, water, air, and earth. The seers have deemed her to be the most able to help Skye to learn to control her power.” explained Medusa as the group watched what was being shown on the screen. 

Meanwhile was Tony was relaying what was going on to the rest of the tower via J.A.R.V.I.S. to stop other Avengers from rushing to battle, especially Thor who was ready to defend the tower from what was attacking the tower. After finally reassuring everyone that the danger had past for now, he turned back to the group in the same room as him, “The danger is past isn’t it? Because while Skye’s power is awesome, they are also a problem if she takes down the tower.”

“Too bad she can’t hold on to Steve’s shield all the time. It was able to absorb her power like a sponge.” answered Bruce, trying to think of some way to help Skye.

“Your shield was able to absorb her power? May I ask what it is made of?” asked Medusa, as she looked at Steve.

“It’s a vibranium-steel alloy. A scientist back in the forties accidently made it but was never able to replicate again. Why what are you thinking?” answered Steve.

“I am thinking that Skye’s power isn’t the ability to cause earthquakes but the ability to cause vibrations. It would explain how she was still able to affect the tower even though we are so far from the ground up here.” replied Medusa.

“Of course! I had been wondering why before Steve showed up, that with us being underground and surrounded by earth, that Skye wasn’t able to do more if her power affected the ground. It’s because she’s able to vibrate whatever her power is aimed at and we were in a triple reinforced adamantium room. The bonds in that metal are so strong that it’s indestructible.” exclaimed Bruce. “If she could focus it, she could very well be one of the most powerful one of us.”

“What if we reworked one of my repulsor gauntlet designs, made it with a vibranium alloy, making it so she was able to regulate how much power she released and helped her to focus it? It could help her for now. She might be able to control it later to a better degree and not need them. Better to be prepared and not need it then need it and not have it.” Tony tossed out even as he started to go to work on a design on a tablet from the coffee table. 

“I don’t want to sound like I’m trying to lock her up, because I am the last to want to hurt her, would it be best to have her stay in the Hulk out room until she has better control of her power?” asked Coulson, not wanting to but having to think of the safety of everyone living in the tower.

Steve answered with, “When she gets back, we’ll discuss it with her so that she understands that we aren’t trying to lock her up but we also have to think of the safety of everyone in the tower. That it will only be until she has a better grasp on her power so she doesn’t accidently drop the building down around our ears.” He started to mentally prepare himself to talk to Skye, taking on that responsibility as the team leader.

But all of their worries were cut out from under them in regards to having to talk to Skye about the safety of the tower when Wanda spoke up while holding a phone to her ear, “Skye understands your concerns and shares them too. She is willing to stay down there until she has better control of herself. She also suggests that Tony speak with FitzSimmons about the gauntlets since they probably have full body scans of her and can provide dimensions to have them fit her and not Tony.”

“You’ve been here barely half a day, how do you have Skye’s phone number? Did you pluck it from one of our minds? Cause we need to talk about stuff like that if you’re going to do stuff like that.” Tony snarked while conferencing in FitzSimmons about the designs for Skye.

“It’s not Skye’s number. It’s the number for one of the phones Pietro went and got while you were all talking to Medusa. He just called when he got to where Skye and Crystal were at.” Wanda informed them as she pointed at a wildly waving Pietro on the satellite feed on the screen on the wall.

Steve and Bruce’s eyes bugged out some while Tony shook his head saying, “Damn that kid is fast. And sneaky. Didn’t even see him leave or come back or leave again.” Coulson asked to speak with Skye to find out if she was ok and if she was feeling ok now that she had calmed down while May hovered at his shoulder to hear the answers. Skye told him she was fine but feeling tired at which point Crystal could be heard saying that was normal, that Skye’s body was still adjusting and she probably would be crashing quite soon to sleep for a while. The only reason she hadn’t done it sooner was the fact that she had slept some already due to being put out by May with an ICER.

Soon Skye and Crystal reappeared on the balcony with Lockjaw, Skye sagging in exhaustion prompting Coulson to rush to her side to scoop her up. She barely made a protest before her head fell back as she fell asleep in his arms. Steve offered to carry her, but Coulson said he had it as he walked towards the elevator which J.A.R.V.I.S. opened for him and held open just long enough for May to slip in. 

After watching Coulson and May leave with Skye the rest of the group split up with Steve waving to a departing Johnny Storm as he stepped over to Medusa to speak with her about the relationship she wanted between the Avengers and her people while Tony and Bruce stood staring at Tony’s Starkpad working on the design for Skye’s gauntlets. 

Soon Pietro came flying into the room after running back from where he had met Skye and Crystal up north. He hugged his sister and sat down to talk with Charles to figure out what him and Wanda were going to do now. They had been traveling around when they had been captured, try to figure out what they were going to do with their lives. They both knew that they weren’t ever going lead normal lives with the powers they had and they wanted to do something with them. And while they loved their father and wanted to further mutant rights, they knew that they couldn’t follow in his footsteps. Neither did they want to go the route of Xavier and the X-Men. They both kept too separated from the rest of the world and that wasn’t what either of the twins wanted. If they were honest they liked the way the Avengers operated, the way they just did what was needed and not worried where someone came from, just that they could do the job. So that’s why they turned to Logan to ask if they could stay there with him. 

“Well that’s not really my call kids.” answered Logan with a smile as he saw Steve tap Tony on the shoulder before they both were walking over.

“Logan is right it’s not his call. But it is ours to a certain point. I talked to Thor and he understood that your fighting them at the HYDRA lab was out of desperation and not any malice. Also Charles was helpful in informing me that you are trying to find your own way in the world. If you plan on trying to do what we do, I would feel better if you had the support of a team as you get your superhero feet under you.” Steve said, pointing to his head at the twins look of confusion when he mentioned that Charles had spoke to him, their faces clearing when they realized that Charles had used his telepathy to speak to Steve.

“We’ll have to pitch you to the team for their approval, but I don’t think that will be a problem. Ain’t any of us exactly had normal lives before we came together. Hell you wouldn’t be our first HYDRA victim here. Which means revenge on the bastards who held you. Win-win.” interjected Tony as he grinned at the two young people sitting in front of him. 

After looking at which other for a few moments, Wanda turned back to Tony and Steve, “We accept your offer. Personally I welcome the chance to use my powers for more heroic things then I have in the past. Though Pietro wants to stay cause he thinks Crystal is beautiful and wants to see more of her.” The last part earning her a shove from her brother, who was beet red with a blush which made Charles, Tony and Steve laugh and smile at his embarrassment.

“Well he will be in luck then. Medusa and I just got done discussing Crystal stay here to help Skye gain some control of her powers. Speaking of staying, I suppose we should look into finding you guys a place to stay.” Steve said looking to Tony since it was his tower. Tony immediately called Pepper to discuss where to put them for now. She said she would be right there now that it was safe to move around the tower. At the same time Steve got a call from Fury that he was landing on the roof after he had taken Mike Peterson to visit his son. Steve told him to come to the communal floor, grinning as he imaged Tony punching him in the face about lying about Coulson. 

He motioned Tony to follow him closer to the elevator and asked J.A.R.V.I.S. to record what happened next. Tony came over with a confused look while Steve told him he had a surprise for him. Before Fury arrived, Pepper stepped off the elevator while looking at a Starkpad trying to find the best place to put Tony’s new strays. She had just looked up to ask what Steve and Tony were doing in front of the elevator when the door opened again and Nick Fury stepped out saying “I fucking knew you held out on us when you built SHIELD it’s own quintets. That thing is a thing of beauty.” At the sound of his voice and the shocked look on Tony face for confirmation, Pepper dropped the Starkpad on the ground where it crack into a spider web and threw a punch into Fury’s face that could have only been taught to her by Natasha. The crack of Fury’s nose and the surprise on his face would became Tony’s screen saver in his lab later after he stopped laughing on the floor.


	18. Chapter 17

The weeks after Skye got her powers and the Maximoff twins were brought in were busy with helping Skye learn to control her power to the point she didn’t have to stay in the Hulk out room. Bruce was very helpful in helping her to control her emotions so that her power didn’t get out of control while the gauntlets Tony and FitzSimmons helped her to focus them and regulate the intensity of it. Crystal was also a big help in teaching her some Inhuman techniques for control and as a training partner. Wanda and Pietro quickly settled in the apartment that Pepper gave them. Tony told them they would get their own floor once they earned a place on the team. They were told once Skye was able to train with them, the three of them would start training with a rotation of Avenger members till they found the best fit for everyone. 

They all very shortly learned to dread when they trained with Hawkeye and Black Widow. Those two already had experience training newbies at SHIELD and were not afraid to run them ragged. Logan and Bucky were a close second and third since Logan had train a lot of the younger members of the X-men and Bucky had apparently trained people for HYDRA as the Winter Soldier. The only bright spot was learning that they weren’t alone in their misery since Spiderman was also being train by the Avengers to their surprise since he seemed to be a lone hero according to the papers.

But none of them complained since this was what they all wanted to do and where they wanted to be.

 

“TONY! I thought I told you to stop the music whenever I enter a room. I’m not fucking Darth Vader. I don’t need a damn theme song!” Pepper yelled at Tony as she entered the observation room outside the training room to ‘Bad Bitch’ by Johnny Rock. As soon as she use a very un-Pepper curse word Tony knew that the joking around about her knocking Fury on his ass was over. At first he had it so that when she entered a room, the ‘Wonder Woman’ theme song played. Then he found the song ‘Bad Bitch’ and he couldn’t resist. 

“Aww come on Pep. You knocked Fury on his ass. You deserve to be able to crow about it.” whined Tony hoping she would relent.

“Either the theme music stops or you better get real comfortable on the couch in your lab.” answered Pepper with an arched brow and a tapping foot which earned a laugh out of both Clint and Natasha at the other end of the room.

“J.A.R.V.I.S. you heard the lady. Full stop on the theme music for one Pepper Potts. Please don’t take my sex privileges away.” begged Tony, following Pepper out of the room, hoping she wouldn’t follow through with her threat.

“Wow, she really has him by the short hairs doesn’t she? Glad you don’t do that. You’d just beat me up or stab me.” Clint said as he watched Skye and Wanda practice with their powers down below while Pietro became more and more frustrated that he couldn’t touch Peter even though he was so much faster.

“That’s because you know who wears the pants in our relationship. Besides I’m so badass I don’t need a theme song.” Natasha shot back with a grin and a pat on the head for Clint. 

“True on all points.” he replied. “Think we should call it a day for the youngsters?”

“Probably, Pietro is getting pissed and Skye is losing focus with her powers. Thought the gauntlets Stark made her are amazing.” answered Natasha as she hit the button to signal that training was over. As soon as the signal rang out all four of the young people in the room dropped to the floor in relief.

Natasha reached forward to push an intercom button to the training room, “Still want to be Avengers?”

“YES!!!!!” was the answer she got from four voices. Clint chuckled before saying “The first time we let them loose on a threat they’re going to go ape shit taking out their frustration on it. Just hope I have a good seat and some popcorn.” Natasha just laughed and smacked the back of her hand against his chest. “I’m glad Barnes has them tomorrow.”

“Why does Barnes have them tomorrow? He shouldn’t have them till the day after tomorrow.” Natasha asked as she turned to look at Clint. 

“Because my fiery spider tomorrow happens to be our wedding anniversary and I’m taking you out to celebrate. Just wait till you see your present.” answered a smirking Clint.

With a blink of her eyes, Natasha thought about it for a moment before she smiled, “I think I’m going to like tomorrow very much. It just so happens I have a gift for you too. Was more of a ‘I love you’ gift but I think it will work as an anniversary gift too.”

“Can’t wait.” he said as he leaned forward to kiss her, deepening it as the door to the training room opened as Peter, Wanda, Pietro and Skye walked through to leave and head back to their respective apartments. The four of them quickly left since Clint and Natasha could sometimes forget where they were and treat others to a free show.

The next morning Clint’s shout of joy could be heard on three floors when Natasha gave him his gift. Well at first he was confused when she handed him the deed to some land up north till she explained she had bought some land where he could go out to long range shoot to his hearts content. There even was a small cabin that they could stay in when he to get away. (Also she loved watching him chop wood with his shirt off but that was no one’s business but hers.) Clint got her new improved Widow bites that also shot stun darts to give them more range, a set of laser sharpened knives and a custom made Desert Eagle with her symbol on the handle. Sufficient to say they didn’t leave their floor till they rushed out to hurriedly make the reservations Clint had made for them.

The newest members of the Avengers day started differently then Clint and Natasha’s did. When they arrived at the training floor they discovered that Bucky was in charge of them that day and he was taking them running to improve their cardio and stamina. When they hit the lobby of the building they were surprised when he took off in a random direction instead of heading for Central Park where he and Steve usually ran. When asked why he replied “We’re going to be moving through alleys and back streets full of shit so that you know how to move at speed around obstacles. In Pietro’s case he is going to be running laps around blocks we’re on till we switch to the next one so that he gets the same workout.”

With a groan they set off at a hard jog building to a hard run for them and a light run for Bucky, down full alleys and crap filled streets, dodging dumpsters, trash, pot holes, abandoned cars, and other things. Peter, Skye, and Wanda were all trying to not let their hearts beat out of their chests as they tried to keep up with Bucky as Pietro zoomed past them repeatedly when Bucky was suddenly flying backwards towards them. As they looked further up the street as they stood there panting, they saw a man with what appeared a bazooka on his shoulder and some very ugly robots at his back.

“You children need better role models to look up to. Chasing after this broken weapon won’t do you any good. Luckily for you his masters have decided to retrieve him before he turns on someone.” the man said with a maniacal gleam in his eye.

Peter turned his head to the side so he could see Bucky laying on the ground with what looked like a pillow sized bean bag beside him, “Uh this guy is crazy. Mind if we kick the shit of him?” 

“Well since I’m pretty sure he cracked a couple of ribs and it’s hard to breathe, have at him. I’m going to move to the side and call the tower. Have fun.” Bucky replied with a groan.

“Wanda, is that guy the only one living down there?” At her nod, he grinned as he turned to Skye, “Think you can focus enough without your gauntlets to tear those robots apart some?” 

Skye answered yes just as a white haired streak blow past them only to stop a few feet ahead of them as Pietro stopped holding a doughnut, “What did I miss?” A slim red colored stream of energy floated towards him to tap against his head, sudden understanding lightening his eyes as Wanda brought him up to speed. He smirked quickly before blurring again towards the man down the street, cold cocking him in the temple and dragging him back towards them.

Unfortunately that seemed to trigger the robots in to attacking, not that it really did them any good. Both Skye and Wanda let loose with their powers destroying robots whole scale while Peter caught any that they seem to miss, punching through their thin armor and ripping out power supplies. All in all the actual fight lasted less then five minutes. 

When Tony, Sam and Thor landed on the street a few minutes later, they found the four young people sitting on the curb looking exhausted with Bucky sitting against the wall of a building behind them while the man that attacked them lay in the street wrapped in a nearby restaurant’s decorative fencing screaming threats and obscenities at them. Tony flipped up his face plate to look around saying, “Damn you kids are good. Able to do all this after Robocop over there ran you into the ground? Impressive. By the way any idea who the fuck nugget is?” the last said as he pointed at the metal wrapped man with a thumb.

“No a clue. All I know is the son of bitch shot me with a bean bag the size of a pillow out of a bazooka. Fucking hurt. A lot. Kids kicked his ass while I tried to catch my breathe and called you. No offence to them but I don’t think the robots were very well made.” answered Bucky as Sam checked him over while the other four shook their heads, too tired to do much else.

At that moment a Humvee came flying around the corner, stopping in the middle of the street as Steve and Sharon flew out of the vehicle shield and gun at ready respectively. Once they realized the fight was already over they came walking over past the pile of robot part Wanda used her power to push them into while they waited. Sharon looked at the robots as she walked by only to stop and go back to look again. Moments later she started laughing causing everyone to look at her strangely.

“What’s so funny?” asked Steve as she walked back over to join them.

“Well I know why they didn’t have too hard of a time with them. Not only were they built pretty shoddily from what I could tell, they were built on a flawed blueprints for LMDs.” she answered.

“LMDs?” he asked.

“Life Model Decoy. Basically a robotic stand in SHIELD made to send into dangerous situations that required someone’s presence but was too valuable to put in danger.” Sharon explained. 

Tony walked over as Peter, Skye, Wanda and Pietro trudged towards the Humvee to ride back while Thor carried Bucky back to get him checked out with Sam to watch their backs. “She’s right it is a flawed design. But how does she know that?” Tony asked Sharon.

“I helped battle test this model. I remember how ridiculously easy it was to fuck them up. Pissed the Tech division off so bad that they requested that I never be allowed to test for them again. Hill made a point to send me down there when ever she could, just to break their toys for them. Still not as rough as Hawkeye and Black Widow could be. I swear you give those two an unsharpened pencil and nothing else, they could take over a heavily defended base.” Sharon responded with a smile.

“I don’t doubt it with those two. Probably wouldn’t even need the pencil.” remarked Steve. “So what are we doing about the pile of robots and, what was it you called him, oh yeah, the fuck nugget?”

“Already got a crew coming to clean up the robots. Going to send them directly to a melting furnace and make them into play equipment. What?” Tony explained before he got two raised eyebrows from Steve and Sharon. “HYDRA keeps leaving its trash around. Might as well make something useful out of it. Aw quit it. The light coming off you is blinding.” he said as Steve and Sharon grin at him.

“Still doesn’t explain what we’re going to do with him, the Humvee is full. Plus I’m not sure those four wouldn’t ‘accidently’ let one of the doors open and drop him while driving down the street.” Steve said as he pointed at the scowling man on the ground still wrapped in fencing.

“That’s fine. I’m going to take him and give him to Coulson. Maybe soften him up a little. How close you think I can get him to a roof or window before he wets himself?” Tony told them before flipping down his visor and taking off, reaching down to grab the prisoner as he went by. Steve and Sharon watched him fly off listening to the prisoner scream the whole way. When they couldn’t hear him anymore, the two of them walked to the Humvee to get in to leave, waving at the arriving Stark Industries employees as they set up a equipment to load the robots and haul them away. As they drove off, Sharon looked back to see all four of the people in the back were passed out in their seats. “I feel like a mom picking up kids after a practice with them all asleep back there.” she said, jerking her thumb over her shoulder.

“In a military grade vehicle?” Steve asked with a smile.

“Ok, a badass mom. Happy?” Sharon retorted.

“Very.” Steve said as he reached over to pat her knee.

 

As soon as they arrived back at the tower Thor took Bucky to the medical floor to be checked out since he was having trouble breathing deeply. Once there the doctor quickly set up an x-ray on his chest which revealed four cracked ribs around his sternum. The doctor told him even with the serum in his body that he would need to still take it easy and rest to let them heal correctly. Bucky was about to protest when a dark haired bespeckled bundle of sass in the form of Darcy Lewis blew in to the room saying, “Oh he’ll follow your orders to the letter even if I have to have Thor hold him down the whole time. Just give me the list of orders and I’ll take care of it. Thor come put James in a wheelchair and follow me.” she finished with a sweep out the door.

Thor just shrugged in apology as he helped Bucky into a wheelchair and pushed him out of the room towards the elevator that Darcy was holding open while typing on a Starkpad.

“What the hell just happened? What is Pepper’s personal assistant doing down here and why is she bossing me around?” asked a confused Bucky looking over his shoulder at Thor.

“I do believe that Darcy was concerned about you. She has expressed quite the interest in you ever since you arrived in the tower. At least according to my Jane. I believe the only reason she hasn’t approached you before was she was trying to let you, as she said, get your brain unfucked up from the shit HYDRA did to you and let you get to know Steve once again. But now I think she is going to be staking a claim on you.” Thor answered while smiling.

Before Bucky could even think of an answer to what Thor said, he felt a small hand touch his shoulder. Looking up into Darcy’s eyes he heard her say, “I swear he is a worse gossip then ten women. But you do owe me at least an ab ogle and some touching. It was my plan that kept your sweet ass out of jail.”

With a smirk of the old pre-war Bucky shining through that got him many dates he said, “Somehow I get the feeling that I just might enjoy my recovery if you’re going to be my nurse. Could you get one of those little nurse’s outfits with the little caps?” his remark earning him a laugh from Darcy and a tight squeeze on the shoulder from Thor. 

“That’s it. I’m keeping you. Steve will just have to deal. Though I think he’ll be fine if the amount of eye fucking going on between him and Sharon is any indication. I wouldn’t be surprised if they do Thor level destruction to a bedroom once they do get to that point.” Darcy quipped back at him.

“Yeah...They already did that. I teased the hell out of both of them cause I had to help them out of the bed cause they cracked a king size bed in half down the middle. The mattress folded up on them and they couldn’t get out. Well Steve could have but he probably would of hurt Sharon while doing it. Plus she was laughing way too much to be any help.” reported Bucky, stunning both Thor and Darcy before both of them burst out laughing. “If you guys tease him about that, could you wait a few days so I can heal up enough to run?”

“Oh honey when you heal enough to breathe that deep I’m hoping I could talk you into some furniture breaking myself.” Darcy said with a slow wink causing Bucky to shift in the wheelchair to make himself more comfortable as he became aroused. Thor made a point of looking anywhere else then Bucky and Darcy’s flirting. Once Darcy caught sight of how enhancing the serum had been, she mumbled “Definitely going to break something, but oh what a way to ride to ruination.” making Bucky smile since he could hear her due to the serum.

“Dames like you back in the forties, we were warned to stay away from. That you would lead us good Irish boys to trouble.” Bucky told her.

Darcy retorted, “First of all James, you never met a woman like me. 100% unique Darcy Lewis. Second both you and Steve Rogers have never been good Irish boys. He liked to start fights and you liked to finish them for him. Remember I know all of you guys personally, not just your public images. Luckily for you I like my men 100% bad boy avenging guardian angels who keep watching over trouble making former skinny blonde punks. Plus I have a huge metal kink.”

By this point they had reached the door to Darcy’s apartment which she opened so Thor could roll Bucky inside to her couch which Thor helped him on to. “Just a question, shouldn’t I be back on Steve’s floor?”

“No. You’re here so I can keep an eye on you. You’re not going to do much moving till your ribs heal, so might as well do it on my nice comfy couch until other wise.” she said before turning to Thor, “Thank you Thor. Please make sure the wheelchair gets back to medical.” getting a nod from the god as he started for her door where before he left he gave Bucky a look that promised pain if he hurt Darcy, like any big brother would.

Darcy closed the door and leaned back against it looking at Bucky like he was a seven course meal and she hadn’t eaten in week. The hunger in her eyes made him swallow as he patted the seat next to him as he said, “Why don’t you come over here and tell me about this metal kink you have?”

 

All Tony said when Barnes asked if there was a way to take off the artificial skin on his arm so that it was just metal was, “Here you go.” as he handed him a case. “I see Darcy finally pounced on your ass. In the case is a carbon copy of your everyday arm sans skin. Now go have fun but don’t break her. Pepper needs her in the office bright and early Monday morning.”

As Barnes left, Tony smiled as he wondered if they would discover the vibration feature on the arm.

The bottle of very expensive scotch setting in his lab the next day with a card that said thank you with a set of lips prints in Darcy’s favorite shade made him guess they did.


	19. Chapter 18

“Thank you everyone for coming. In just a few moments Ms Potts will be addressing you if you will all please find your seats so that we may begin.” Darcy spoke into the microphone on the podium in the largest press room in the tower. She was barely able to contain herself in anticipation of what was about to happen. “Alright without further ado, Ms Virginia ‘Pepper’ Potts.” she said as she swept her hand out to introduce the tall strawberry blonde woman striding across the stage.

“Thank you Ms Lewis. Thank you all for being here. Before we begin, J.A.R.V.I.S. engage total media broadcast protocols please.” Pepper said, waiting for J.A.R.V.I.S. to take over every bit of media he could access while the assembled reporters started to mummer to themselves.

“Protocols in place Ms Potts.” reported J.A.R.V.I.S.

“Thank you J.A.R.V.I.S. Now that I have EVERYONE’S attention I will fill you in on what I have to say here. First of all the rumors that Tony Stark proposed to me and I accepted, those are true.” she said as the room exploded with questions. She raised her hand to quiet them down so she could proceed once again, “If you will wait all your questions will be answered in due time. As you can imagine between both our busy schedules with me running Stark Industries as CEO and Tony inventing and being an Avenger, the planning of our wedding has been a huge task. But we finally have everything planned and ready for the big day. But as with any day the Avengers could be called to action and since they are all invited, it could put a damper on the day especially if the groom has to leave.” she paused to take a drink of water as the room laughed at her humor.

Pepper looked around the room, meeting most of the eyes in the room before looking to the side where Darcy gave her a thumbs up as she knew what was getting ready to happen. With a smile Pepper turned back to the crowd, the smile becoming predatory as she started to speak, “So in the line of thinking, I’m throwing down an ultimatum to every villain, bad guy, organization or country that wants to ruin peoples lives. I will be getting married in exactly one month’s time. On the date of my wedding there will be NO ACTIVITY of any kind that would even hint at disturbing my day. ARE WE CLEAR?”

“Ms Potts, with all due respect, just how do you think you will enforce such an ultimatum?” asked a pompous looking man from Fox News.

In response Pepper just pointed up as a giant screen dropped down from the ceiling, the screen filling with am aerial shot of a complex of some sort. “Black Widow this is Ms Potts, do you copy?”

“Copy Ms Potts, this is Black Widow. Thirty seconds until target.” answered Natasha.

“Proceed then.” ordered Pepper.

As everyone watched the screen they saw the complex get larger until the image jumped as a very large missile came into view as it streaked towards the target. They all watched as the missile leveled off above the complex just before it seemed to explode into hundreds of orbs that rained down to the ground. As they hit the ground each one seem to vaporize an area the size of a sedan. Once the last one was done, where once there was a complex there was a crater several hundred feet deep. Pepper gave them a few moments to absorb what just happened on the screen be fore she spoke, “That was an A.I.M. facility that was used to develop Extremis. Many people died in their experiments and I feel better that it is gone. As calm as I am over the decision to destroy it, just how destructive do you think I will be if you piss me off. I have access to every bit of the advance weaponry that Stark Industries ever developed or had in development, a fiancé that builds super powerful suits of armor, a friend who grows into a ten foot tall rage fueled machine, a Norse god, two super soldiers, two master assassins, an indestructible adamantium laced mutant, several other groups of similarly powered groups on speed dial. Frankly I could probably set myself up as queen of the planet if I really wanted to. But all I want is one day in peace to have my wedding. ANY OTHER QUESTIONS?”

Pepper just chuckled at the stunned silence in the crowd as she collected her notes and walked off the stage, telling J.A.R.V.I.S. to shut down the protocols to release all the media he had taken over. Darcy was practically vibrating with excitement from watching Pepper basically give a supervillain speech as she said, “Ok, if you do take over the world, I demand a kick ass cape to wear to sweep off my shoulder when you let me push the button to blow shit up. Second if I wasn’t tapping some supersoldier ass, I probably would be begging to be your little sex toy, cause that was extremely uber hot.”

Pepper burst out laughing before collecting herself to say “First off, as Eda Mode said in the Incredibles, ‘No capes”. Instead there will be kick ass heels. As foe being my sex toy, honey you couldn’t handle me.”

Darcy just laugh in response as she murmured, “Best boss ever.”

 

Two days after Pepper’s press conference, Dr Doom decided to announce to the world that he would be attacking New York on the same day as Tony and Pepper’s wedding, saying that no one tells Doom what to do.

An hour later an ICBM crashed through the top of Doom’s castle. Surprisingly the missile didn’t explode. Doom started to ridicule Stark’s inferior technology when a tearing of metal could be heard. As he watched in growing horror a green hand extended out of the growing hole in the missile which quickly turned into a very pissed off Hulk.

“What is the meaning of this? How dare they send this creature here!” yelled Doom as he signaled for his Doombots.

Hulk’s attention snapped to Doom as he yelled causing Hulk to roar out, “YOU BAD METAL MAN! YOU MAKE METAL MAN’S BETTY SAD AND MAD! YOU MAKE BETTY MAD! BETTY SAY SHE BE HAPPY IF BAD METAL MAN’S CASTLE FALL DOWN! HULK MAKE BETTY HAPPY!” As Doom watched, Hulk started smashing to the best of his ability, all while fighting off everything that Doom could throw at him. Hulk just smashed, tore, crushed, broke his way through Doom’s castle until it was a giant pile of rubble. The last Doom was seen was as he flew away being held by two of his Doombots as he watched his castle fall in on itself. 

Hulk continued to destroy the castle until it was unrecognizable as a building, at which point he nodded his head at a job well done. After that he took a running leap to start to head for home, making miles long jumps to speed the process. After awhile he was met by an Ironman suit that broadcast Betty’s voice asking that he calm down so that Bruce could take over and fit in the suit to come home to Betty. As soon as Bruce was in the suit he feel asleep from using so much energy.

 

Meanwhile back in New York Tony and Pepper along with the rest of the Avengers and friends were watching the video of the destruction done by the Hulk broadcast by another of Tony’s Ironman suits. Tony turned to Pepper with a huge smile on his face, “Have I told you how much I love you lately? Cause see you ordering the Hulk dropped straight into the lap of Dr. Doom was pretty hot. My question is how did you get Bruce to do it?”

“All the credit for that goes to Betty. She just happened to be here to go to lunch with me when Doom made his announcement. I said I wish I could drop the Hulk on his head and she said she could make it happen if I could find a way to get him there. So I looked in the inventory to see we had a missile with no payload in it and had it pulled out of storage. Betty went and got Bruce to take to the missile. From what I saw she looked Bruce right in the eyes and told the Hulk that she was very mad at Doom, showing him a picture on her phone, and that she wanted his castle destroyed. She told him that he was not to hurt the man but destroy his castle until it was gone and then he could come home. Bruce’s eyes glowed green and he nodded. Then he climbed in the missile and the workers closed it up and J.A.R.V.I.S. launched it. The rest you know. I did warn the whole world what would happen if they fucked with me and our wedding.” answered Pepper. 

Clint leaned over to Natasha to whisper, “Just so that we’re clear, we ARE NOT to ever piss off Pepper right?” Natasha just nodded her head, thinking that she was glad Pepper was a friend and not an enemy. 

Skye leaned over to Wanda to say, “I want to grow up to be Pepper. She is legitimately a badass.” which Darcy heard causing her to say, “No way, if anyone has dibs on growing up to be Pepper, it’s me.” making everyone else to laugh.

After the laughter died down, Pepper took a sip of the wine Tony had poured her before saying, “I wonder if anyone else will try or if everyone got the message to leave my wedding day alone. If not, well I’m fully prepared to do what it takes to have my special day.”

 

Luckily for Pepper no one else seemed to be stupid enough to challenge her word that she would destroy anyone who wanted to mess with her wedding day. The Avengers actually had a peaceful month leading up to the date of Tony and Pepper’s wedding. The day of the wedding dawn bright and clear which was great since it was taking place in Central Park so as to have room for all the invited guests. It was going to be a who’s who of spectacular caliber, from the President, the Fantastic Four, many of the X-Men, to many celebrities. 

Up at the altar on the brides side was Natasha, Betty, Jane, Darcy as bridesmaids since Pepper couldn’t decide one who should be maid of honor. She offered to have some of the other women in the tower stand up there with her but they all said they’d rather sit in the crowd and watch. 

On Tony’s side was his best man Rhodey, groomsmen Bruce, Steve, Thor, and Clint. Sam and Bucky were acting as ushers as well as keeping an eye out for any trouble just in case. Though really who would be stupid enough to attack here when a mass majority of the most powerful people on the planet were there?

“Man I never thought I’d see the day you got married. Nervous?” Rhodey asked as they stood at the altar.

“Truthfully? No I’m not. This really feels right. I feel like the luckiest man in the world right now.” answered Tony as he waited to catch sight of Pepper at the end of the aisle.

Suddenly the wedding march started before Clint could make the smartass remark that was on the tip of his tongue. Suddenly there was Pepper in a gorgeous designer gown being escorted by Happy and Tony’s breathe stopped. Steve reached forward to slap Tony’s back before he could pass out from lack of oxygen. Tony just nodded his thanks while never taking his eyes off of Pepper, who also only had eyes for the man waiting for her at the end of the aisle at the altar. 

Once she reach the altar and Happy handed her to Tony, Pepper greeted Tony, “Mr Stark.”

With a grin Tony responded, “Ms Potts. I do believe this time I’m the one who gets 12% of the credit. The rest of it is all you.”

With a laugh Pepper turned to the official you was marrying them (who suspiciously looked a lot like Stan Lee. Wink wink. Cameo!) and said, “Lets do this before I come to my senses.” which made the all the guests laugh loudly.

After that the wedding was a blur of vows and I dos when suddenly all of Tony’s Ironman suits came flying into appearance above the guests. Several people tensed, ready for an attack when one of the suits landed next to Tony and Pepper and opened its hand to revel a matched pair of rings. Rhodey stepped forward to pick the rings up and hand them to Pepper and Tony so that they could do the ring exchange. Once they had placed the rings on each others fingers, Pepper suddenly jumped into Tony’s arm to plant a staggering hot kiss on his lips before she pulled back to say, “Mr Stark.”

“Mrs Stark.” Tony responded back at her as a cheer went up from all the guests. The official pronounced them husband and wife as Tony and Pepper turned to the crowd with huge smiles and started down the aisle between the seats. As they did Tony’s suits landed to form an honor guard with their palms raised, firing repulsor blasts like a twenty one gun salute. Once they were gone the crowd was informed that a reception was taking place at Avengers tower in the ballroom and that a fleet of limos were waiting to transport the guests there.

As guests arrived at the tower and entered the ballroom, they were greeted with sight of an elegant but simple setting of white clothed tables, low lighting brightened by candlelight from each table, and a buffet table that stretched the length of one wall with what appeared to be every type of food from lobster to a stack of pizza still in the boxes they were delivered in. The open area that was to serve as a dance floor was lit by a chandelier that could have been only made by Tony himself as it gave off light the color of his arc reactor and was heavily wired with power cables. Near the head table was a huge wedding cake with a bride in a crisp business suit standing next to a man in a black t-shirt who seemed to be working on a Ironman helmet.

“I don’t even want to know were Natasha got those and how she got them on the cake since I checked it before we left for the park.” sighed Pepper once she caught sight of the bride and groom on the cake. 

“Yeah but you got to admit they do represent us pretty well though. I vote we keep them afterwards to remember this day.” replied Tony, trying to suppress a chuckle at the exasperation on Pepper’s face from someone messing with their cake.

Pepper was about to turn to him to tell him how sweet he was when a dart landed on the table with a note on it. It said ‘Wasn’t Tasha. I had them made and Peter replaced them from the ceiling so as to not disturb the rest of the cake. -CB’. Pepper and Tony both looked up to see a beaming Clint waving at them. They looked and each other and gave him a thumbs up in response causing Clint to fist pump and almost spill Natasha’s drink. As they watched Natasha grab Clint’s ear to read him the riot act Tony and Pepper started to laugh loudly.

After that the reception proceeded in the same vein of fun and laughter with everyone enjoying themselves till late into the night. Tony and Pepper’s first dance was to Queen’s ‘A Kind of Magic’. A very determined Gwen caught the bouquet while the garter ended up around the neck of Logan’s beer bottle. Once most of the guest had left Tony and Pepper invited the rest of the Avengers and friends up to their penthouse for drinks and to unwind after the long day.

Once everyone was settled around the living room of the penthouse, almost immediately the question of the hour was how Tony and Pepper felt about being married.

Pepper was about to answer when there was a loud thump from the balcony causing everyone to turn to look for the source. What they saw was a large robotic humanoid with glowing red eyes and mouth who then said “Excuse the interruption but I did wait for your wedding day to be over like you asked.”


End file.
